a quick update on the kids at the orphanage:
i've fallen in love with a little boy named daniel. he's probably around 4 and i think he's autistic. he doesn't talk but definitely smiles mighty big every time he sees me. and i definitely held him for half of the day today. and if i wasn't holding him (or wiping his nose, he has a cold), we were playing with a bouncy ball and he was dragging me around the room after it.
i taught two girls named belen and vanesa how to ride bikes today. kind of. they were tricycles. they learned how to put their feet on the pedals and move them so they could go places. i was pretty impressed, even though i'm not really sure my instructions were good. ("put one foot here and the other one there. now move your legs. continue!" ahhhh, broken spanish...)
there's one little boy named pachenco and he's awesome. today he was definitely the best dressed little guy in the place in a red polo shirt. and he's very outgoing and kind of has an attitude with the other kids, but i pretty much adore him anyway. he gives great hugs.
vanesa has an obsession with my glasses. and she waves ¨hola¨ and ¨adios¨ to anything she sees (airplanes, a social worker walking through the building...) and blows kisses. cutest!
there's another little boy named luis angel and he's pretty much the smallest kid i have ever seen in my life. he likes hugs too.
the girls all wore disney shirts today, with pictures of the princesas and la sirenita, etc. so adorable!
basically all these kids are precious and i like them alot.
today was much better than my first time there, when i was in charge of 20 kids, some of them babies, running around and hitting each other. that's not very cool when i don't speak the language. today was much more organized and i actually feel like i can do good things there. yay! :)
13 February 2007
06 February 2007
bliss.
this weekend´s trip to the states of morelos and guerrero was definitely one of the highlights of mexico so far.
it started out not-so-fun, with a bit of motion sickness-induced throwing up on the side of the road about 15 minutes outside of cuernavaca (ending a 3 year streak with none of that), which successfully earned me the nickname ¨the vom-bomb¨ (thanks to krista, of course). after that, though, everything was marvelous!
i fell in love with cuernavaca, a city that´s surrounded by rocking cliffs and abundant amounts of green trees. it´s the city where cortes (as in hernán cortes, the conquerer of mexico) settled and we visited his palace there, which is decorated with TONS of beautiful diego rivera murals! morelos is also the home of emiliano zapata, and he´s much more beloved in the city than cortes is. after dinner on the zócalo, we watched some random guys breakdance. it was awesome - until it starting raining pretty hard! what´s with this rain all of a sudden??
sunday we went to more pyramids, which i don´t really remember because i took dramamine and was rather ... drowsy. (drowsy is an understatement. i was sleep-walking.) then we drove a couple more hours through some of the highest mountains i have ever seen to reach the most beautiful city in all the world....
TAXCO!
since i can´t upload my own pictures on here, i´ll recommend that everyone look at this picture:
http://www.tiwy.com/pais/mexico/fotos_2003/taxco/taxco_panorama_t.jpg
that´s basically what the view was from my hotel room - and we slept with our windows and curtains thrown wide open so we could look at the lights all night. leah even slept outside on the balcony!
taxco is a silver mining town, so we went shopping for silver (i bought earrings!) on sunday night. leah, mel, kelly, and i found a rooftop restaurant to eat at (near the large church, if you look at the picture) and it served chicken curry, so i was in heaven for all 5 minutes it took me to hoover that meal! it was also super bowl sunday, and since i´m with lots of chicago and indianapolis fans, we watched the game.
i loved cuernavaca, but i ADORE taxco. everyone should go there.
i´m wearing one of meghan´s soccer sweatshirts from high school and today at lunch, i was approached by the soccer coach and asked if i wanted to play for udla´s team. i laughed for a few minutes before i was able to tell him that i am completely incapable of playing soccer. then i thought that maybe i should´ve joined the team just for the workouts... which means i´m going to start running on my own very soon.
it started out not-so-fun, with a bit of motion sickness-induced throwing up on the side of the road about 15 minutes outside of cuernavaca (ending a 3 year streak with none of that), which successfully earned me the nickname ¨the vom-bomb¨ (thanks to krista, of course). after that, though, everything was marvelous!
i fell in love with cuernavaca, a city that´s surrounded by rocking cliffs and abundant amounts of green trees. it´s the city where cortes (as in hernán cortes, the conquerer of mexico) settled and we visited his palace there, which is decorated with TONS of beautiful diego rivera murals! morelos is also the home of emiliano zapata, and he´s much more beloved in the city than cortes is. after dinner on the zócalo, we watched some random guys breakdance. it was awesome - until it starting raining pretty hard! what´s with this rain all of a sudden??
sunday we went to more pyramids, which i don´t really remember because i took dramamine and was rather ... drowsy. (drowsy is an understatement. i was sleep-walking.) then we drove a couple more hours through some of the highest mountains i have ever seen to reach the most beautiful city in all the world....
TAXCO!
since i can´t upload my own pictures on here, i´ll recommend that everyone look at this picture:
http://www.tiwy.com/pais/mexico/fotos_2003/taxco/taxco_panorama_t.jpg
that´s basically what the view was from my hotel room - and we slept with our windows and curtains thrown wide open so we could look at the lights all night. leah even slept outside on the balcony!
taxco is a silver mining town, so we went shopping for silver (i bought earrings!) on sunday night. leah, mel, kelly, and i found a rooftop restaurant to eat at (near the large church, if you look at the picture) and it served chicken curry, so i was in heaven for all 5 minutes it took me to hoover that meal! it was also super bowl sunday, and since i´m with lots of chicago and indianapolis fans, we watched the game.
i loved cuernavaca, but i ADORE taxco. everyone should go there.
i´m wearing one of meghan´s soccer sweatshirts from high school and today at lunch, i was approached by the soccer coach and asked if i wanted to play for udla´s team. i laughed for a few minutes before i was able to tell him that i am completely incapable of playing soccer. then i thought that maybe i should´ve joined the team just for the workouts... which means i´m going to start running on my own very soon.
31 January 2007
i´d first like to note that it started raining on friday night, a mere 14 hours after i wrote (gloated, rather) in my last entry about the lack of rain here. what up, bad karma.
also, the last entry that was published on here (you know the one, it has the date and nothing else...) was full of pictures that i had finally gotten to upload, but apparently when published, deleted the photos. i don´t really know how to delete an entry entirely, so there´s just going to be some empty space there for awhile. and i guess everyone will just have to see my pictures when i come home.
in the mean time, i can report that my first weekend in cholula / puebla was a success. it involved lots of semi-lost wandering, but that´s when you discover good architecture and fun parks and can do the best people watching, so i´m not complaining. it was drizzling on and off all day on saturday, so mel and mal and krista and i went into puebla to discover museums and eat good food. (we opted against the zoo because everyone knows that people who go to the zoo on rainy days are stupid and also the bane of my existance.) we discovered a museum called the museo amparo, which ... made me want to be an archeologist! big surprise. sunday, we decided we could not live one moment longer if we didn´t climb a pyramid (it had been seven days, people!), so mel and krista and i walked 6 blocks to the cholula pyramid and scaled it. it´s important to note that it´s un poco más dificil to climb pyramids in high elevations because of the lack of air. at the top are some of the best views of the cholula and puebla areas, i can imagine. it was just lovely!
yesterday was my first day at la casa de la niñez poblana. i was more worried about the bus(ses) than i was about the orphanage, but i think it should´ve been the other way around. on the way there, i met a woman at the busstop whose daughter is studying latin american studies in boston. so we chatted awhile and it eased my nerves. the children were adorable, but it´s overwhelming to have 20+ of them running around with only you to take care of them ... when you´re having a hard time understanding the language. they all call me (and every woman there) mamí ... which was also unnerving. i wanted to take them all home with me and give them homes with people to love them, but i can´t and that´s pretty heartbreaking. basically my first day was really overwhelming, but i liked it and i think i´ll be able to get past the fact that i want to give them all homes and instead focus on making their lives better in smaller ways, like kicking around a soccer ball or working on a puzzle or rubbing their backs when they´re having trouble falling asleep at naptime.
the end of the week brings alot of homework. (see, i swear i´m not on vacation!) then we have monday off (it´s constitution day!) and we´re taking a 3-day trip to morelos and guerrero. this area´s in a lower elevation and should be quite lush this time of year, i´m told. i´m really excited, since we get to explore caves and pyramids and stay in hotels with pools and gorgeous views. and see more diego rivera murals!
that´s about it. the keyboard on this computer has a spacebar that doesn´t work all that well, so writing this has been a bit of a chore. i´ll keep it (semi) short. ¡hasta la proxima semana!
also, the last entry that was published on here (you know the one, it has the date and nothing else...) was full of pictures that i had finally gotten to upload, but apparently when published, deleted the photos. i don´t really know how to delete an entry entirely, so there´s just going to be some empty space there for awhile. and i guess everyone will just have to see my pictures when i come home.
in the mean time, i can report that my first weekend in cholula / puebla was a success. it involved lots of semi-lost wandering, but that´s when you discover good architecture and fun parks and can do the best people watching, so i´m not complaining. it was drizzling on and off all day on saturday, so mel and mal and krista and i went into puebla to discover museums and eat good food. (we opted against the zoo because everyone knows that people who go to the zoo on rainy days are stupid and also the bane of my existance.) we discovered a museum called the museo amparo, which ... made me want to be an archeologist! big surprise. sunday, we decided we could not live one moment longer if we didn´t climb a pyramid (it had been seven days, people!), so mel and krista and i walked 6 blocks to the cholula pyramid and scaled it. it´s important to note that it´s un poco más dificil to climb pyramids in high elevations because of the lack of air. at the top are some of the best views of the cholula and puebla areas, i can imagine. it was just lovely!
yesterday was my first day at la casa de la niñez poblana. i was more worried about the bus(ses) than i was about the orphanage, but i think it should´ve been the other way around. on the way there, i met a woman at the busstop whose daughter is studying latin american studies in boston. so we chatted awhile and it eased my nerves. the children were adorable, but it´s overwhelming to have 20+ of them running around with only you to take care of them ... when you´re having a hard time understanding the language. they all call me (and every woman there) mamí ... which was also unnerving. i wanted to take them all home with me and give them homes with people to love them, but i can´t and that´s pretty heartbreaking. basically my first day was really overwhelming, but i liked it and i think i´ll be able to get past the fact that i want to give them all homes and instead focus on making their lives better in smaller ways, like kicking around a soccer ball or working on a puzzle or rubbing their backs when they´re having trouble falling asleep at naptime.
the end of the week brings alot of homework. (see, i swear i´m not on vacation!) then we have monday off (it´s constitution day!) and we´re taking a 3-day trip to morelos and guerrero. this area´s in a lower elevation and should be quite lush this time of year, i´m told. i´m really excited, since we get to explore caves and pyramids and stay in hotels with pools and gorgeous views. and see more diego rivera murals!
that´s about it. the keyboard on this computer has a spacebar that doesn´t work all that well, so writing this has been a bit of a chore. i´ll keep it (semi) short. ¡hasta la proxima semana!
29 January 2007
26 January 2007
¡hola! it´s a beautiful sunny morning here in cholula. (i haven´t seen rain in 3 weeks and i´m beginning to think this is the way to live...)
this week´s been pretty exciting.
on tuesday, leah and i took a walking adventure around cholula that involved the discovery of a small pyramid behind a fence, a truckload of soldiers with large weapons, some adorable boutiques and pottery stores, getting un poquito lost, a market, dead chickens (lots of them! with the feathers plucked! gross.), and $8 (US) worth of produce to make fresh juice. it was divine. we also made pancakes and eggs for the entire group after class at the cholula house. it´s important to note that we also learned that the word ¨zócalo¨is not pronounced with your standard american z sound (as in zoo or zany or zebra). it´s pronouced like the ts in tsar. ¨ts-ócalo.¨if you want to get anywhere in this town, you have to pronounce it correctly! otherwise, someone might think you want to buy tortillas...
however, my confidence in just walking up to a random person and speaking to them in spanish has increased tenfold. granted, i go over what i want to say in my head for about 3 minutes before i do it, but STILL. i´m pretty proud of myself.
wednesday involved another visit to the orphanage where i´ll volunteer. it´s called la casa de la niñez poblana and it´s a home for not just orphaned children, but those who were abused or neglected and put into state care. kids up to 12 or 13 years live there, but i´m going to be working with the 2-3 year olds. also, in february, i´m taking a class so i can work with the little babies, which means two things:
1. i might get really attached to them and never come home, OR
2. i might have to come home, but there´s a possibility i´ll have an adopted child with me....
my roommate wants me to visit her house in chiapas for spring break. some of us were talking about visiting palenque (mayan ruins in the jungle!!!), which is also in chiapas, and then spending the rest of our week on a beach in the yucatan, so i think i might get to stop by crystal´s house too! this is fun.
there´s no VU trip this weekend, so the valpo crew will be hanging around cholula and puebla. another walking tour will probably happen ... and we´re also planning on visiting the zoo!! rumor has it that it´s a safari zoo, with the animals just roaming around (and visitors in cars, of course). pretty much it´s going to be the coolest thing ever. and i´m determined to pet a giraffe. or an elephant.
i´m getting pretty comfortable in my classes. i´m only taking 3 on campus. my grammar class makes me feel like i´m in 3rd grade, but at the same time, i´m pretty sure it´s essential since i haven´t taken a grammar class in a year and 1/2 and seem to have forgotten lots. my oral and written communication class is wonderful, because we basically talk or write the whole time. excellent practice! my business class... has reminded me that i never wanted to be a business major. apparently we might go to the vw plant here in town, though, and see how jettas are made. that´s pretty cool.
and on that note, it´s time for breakfast. they call frosted flakes ¨zucaritas¨here.
this week´s been pretty exciting.
on tuesday, leah and i took a walking adventure around cholula that involved the discovery of a small pyramid behind a fence, a truckload of soldiers with large weapons, some adorable boutiques and pottery stores, getting un poquito lost, a market, dead chickens (lots of them! with the feathers plucked! gross.), and $8 (US) worth of produce to make fresh juice. it was divine. we also made pancakes and eggs for the entire group after class at the cholula house. it´s important to note that we also learned that the word ¨zócalo¨is not pronounced with your standard american z sound (as in zoo or zany or zebra). it´s pronouced like the ts in tsar. ¨ts-ócalo.¨if you want to get anywhere in this town, you have to pronounce it correctly! otherwise, someone might think you want to buy tortillas...
however, my confidence in just walking up to a random person and speaking to them in spanish has increased tenfold. granted, i go over what i want to say in my head for about 3 minutes before i do it, but STILL. i´m pretty proud of myself.
wednesday involved another visit to the orphanage where i´ll volunteer. it´s called la casa de la niñez poblana and it´s a home for not just orphaned children, but those who were abused or neglected and put into state care. kids up to 12 or 13 years live there, but i´m going to be working with the 2-3 year olds. also, in february, i´m taking a class so i can work with the little babies, which means two things:
1. i might get really attached to them and never come home, OR
2. i might have to come home, but there´s a possibility i´ll have an adopted child with me....
my roommate wants me to visit her house in chiapas for spring break. some of us were talking about visiting palenque (mayan ruins in the jungle!!!), which is also in chiapas, and then spending the rest of our week on a beach in the yucatan, so i think i might get to stop by crystal´s house too! this is fun.
there´s no VU trip this weekend, so the valpo crew will be hanging around cholula and puebla. another walking tour will probably happen ... and we´re also planning on visiting the zoo!! rumor has it that it´s a safari zoo, with the animals just roaming around (and visitors in cars, of course). pretty much it´s going to be the coolest thing ever. and i´m determined to pet a giraffe. or an elephant.
i´m getting pretty comfortable in my classes. i´m only taking 3 on campus. my grammar class makes me feel like i´m in 3rd grade, but at the same time, i´m pretty sure it´s essential since i haven´t taken a grammar class in a year and 1/2 and seem to have forgotten lots. my oral and written communication class is wonderful, because we basically talk or write the whole time. excellent practice! my business class... has reminded me that i never wanted to be a business major. apparently we might go to the vw plant here in town, though, and see how jettas are made. that´s pretty cool.
and on that note, it´s time for breakfast. they call frosted flakes ¨zucaritas¨here.
22 January 2007
pyramid-climbing at teotihuacan and tula over the weekend was a success. by weekend´s end, somewhere between 5 and 8 pyramids were climbed (do the small ones count? i´m not sure...) and my thighs are not quite sure whether to thank me or eat themselves. the stairs on the pyramid of the sun (and the pyramid of the moon, for that matter) were higher than my knees, which made climbing into quite the workout! the views from the tops were lovely (as always) and i´m STILL attempting to find a website that will let me upload my pictures (other than facebook, which is the only place i managed to get a few up). stay tuned...
i also paid a visit to a church called san francisco javier and it was almost completely covered in gold inside. then i visited a convent / museum that had a huge exhibit about crowned nuns (they dressed like queens!) and mel and i decided to maybe become nuns, as long as they let us dress like queen elizabeth I...
in other news, i´ve discovered a fair trade coffee shop, a tetera (tea room), and a lebanese restaurant near campus. all places i´d like to visit this week!
all this pyramid climbing is making me crave an indiana jones movie night. also, i believe that the next two places on my travel itinerary will have to be egypt and peru, as i might be on a slight pyramid / ancient ruins high...
next week i´m going to start volunteering at an orphanage in puebla. i´m a little nervous (because i´m intimidated by kids who can speak better spanish than me!), but really excited. the trip to the orphanage includes 2 busses and some crossing of very busy streets - all of which i´ll have to do alone. after this semester, i´m pretty sure that navigating cincinnati´s metro system will be a piece of cake.
the homework level is increasing slightly, but is nothing like valpo last semester. thank god!
tomorrow is one of my roommate´s birthdays and we´re all going out to a restaurant that gives you tons of free food when you order a couple of pitchers of beer (i´m afraid my german / irish ancestry is finally becoming evident) and then to a hookah bar. by the way, i adore my roommates!
all is well and i´m not sunburned yet, so that´s good. still not drinking the water and still no aztec two-stepping... also good. i hope everyone´s enjoying the snow that seems to be falling everywhere in the states!
i also paid a visit to a church called san francisco javier and it was almost completely covered in gold inside. then i visited a convent / museum that had a huge exhibit about crowned nuns (they dressed like queens!) and mel and i decided to maybe become nuns, as long as they let us dress like queen elizabeth I...
in other news, i´ve discovered a fair trade coffee shop, a tetera (tea room), and a lebanese restaurant near campus. all places i´d like to visit this week!
all this pyramid climbing is making me crave an indiana jones movie night. also, i believe that the next two places on my travel itinerary will have to be egypt and peru, as i might be on a slight pyramid / ancient ruins high...
next week i´m going to start volunteering at an orphanage in puebla. i´m a little nervous (because i´m intimidated by kids who can speak better spanish than me!), but really excited. the trip to the orphanage includes 2 busses and some crossing of very busy streets - all of which i´ll have to do alone. after this semester, i´m pretty sure that navigating cincinnati´s metro system will be a piece of cake.
the homework level is increasing slightly, but is nothing like valpo last semester. thank god!
tomorrow is one of my roommate´s birthdays and we´re all going out to a restaurant that gives you tons of free food when you order a couple of pitchers of beer (i´m afraid my german / irish ancestry is finally becoming evident) and then to a hookah bar. by the way, i adore my roommates!
all is well and i´m not sunburned yet, so that´s good. still not drinking the water and still no aztec two-stepping... also good. i hope everyone´s enjoying the snow that seems to be falling everywhere in the states!
17 January 2007
you know you´re in mexico when...
(a summary of my day / my recent travels in mexico city)
TODAY:
1. while walking into the centro social to get breakfast, i had to pass a guard holding a very-large-gun (i´d say 3 1/2 - 4 feet long, at least), keeping watch while another guard put money in the ATM. and we´re not just talking holding this gun at his side. he was holding it in a way so that everyone walking past him would know he could use it if necessary. well, good morning to you, too. because that´s not AT ALL scary....
2. i fed bread to my baby duck and laid out in the sun by the pool in between my classes this afternoon.
3. dinner was at a churrería on cholula´s zócalo tonight. we sat outside (with a heater near us, thank goodness, as i was still dressed like it was 1pm!) and ate chapatas (that´s confusing spanish for ¨italian - seasoned sandwich¨) and churros for desert - filled with gooey, melted nutella. oh hey, heaven.
AND MEXICO CITY:
only in mexico can you climb an ancient aztec pyramid and be within eyesight of a mcdonalds and a kentucky fried chicken. two pyramids were involved in our trip (bringing the total number of pyramids i´ve seen / climbed to ... about 59). the first was in the middle of a lava field and dynamite had to be used to fully excavate it. the second - the hill of the star - was at the top of a large hill (mount adams style, only bigger and more forest-y), which we climbed... in flipflops. the last part of the climb involved a vertical rock slope. so basically i rock-climbed in flipflops and it was the highlight of my life. the view from the top was superb. in every direction, you could see the city. i swear that city never ends! they don´t call it the biggest city in the world for nothing. (and if i´m incorrect that it´s the biggest in the world, my apologies. it might just be in the western hemisphere. either way, it´s enormous...)
museums were also visited - including frida kahlo and diego rivera´s studios (yes, feel free to be jealous), frida kahlo and diego rivera´s house, diego rivera´s museum of ancient aztec / mayan / olmec statues and figurines, and el convento del carmen, an old convent (for monks? i don´t ask questions.) that´s been converted into a museum. my favorite part was definitely seeing the mummies in the basement. unfortunately, i don´t remember much else about the museum because i was so excited about the mummies that came at the end. however, it should be noted that the monks living in the convent were forced to sleep on wooden beds with logs as pillows. not so comfy. and back to the mummies - these aren´t wrapped pharoahs, egypt-style that we´re talking about. these are people that were buried normally, but were naturally mummified due to elements present in the soil, and are basically still fully intact. they still had clothes, hair, teeth, and really shriveled skin. one looked exactly like the grim reaper and one even had its tongue sticking out! they´re terrifyingly amazing. i love mummies.
we went to a mall and i bought a shirt. the cashier almost kept my credit card (i´m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume this was an accident), but i´m pretty awesome and negotiated with him in spanish to get it back. we also went to a super-artsy street market and i was promised that there was an indian restaurant nearby, but i couldn´t find it. super huge letdown right there. we went out for dinner in the zona rosa (and i was very cautious, per michael´s advice) - let´s just call it the clifton of mexico city. we ate at a mariachi club and in the middle of the show, the singer welcomed everyone from our group by name. then he came to our table to sing to us! pretty sweet.
all in all, a very good weekend. next weekend we´re headed back to the mexico city area to view teotihuacan and tula, otherwise known as more aztec ruins! we´re climbing more pyramids (LOTS more pyramids) and by the end of this trip i might want to be an archeologist...
before this weekend comes, however, is the UDLA party of the century tomorrow night. apparently the whole campus goes to some bar for a huge all-UDLA party. fun times! i´ll be sure to report on this later...
my new favorite mexican-ism is using the word ¨super¨before everything. only it´s not pronounced the way we normally say it. it´s like ¨sue-pear.¨ if something´s really easy, it´s ¨super-fácil!¨ it´s basically become my favorite word to say, other than incómodo (awkward, literally uncomfortable), which still describes almost every aspect of my life.
and it should also be noted that one of my roommates was a soccer hooligan for four years. yes, the kind you can read about in ¨how soccer explains the world.¨ her team is the pumas, in mexico city, so if you´re a soccer fan, you should check them out. i´m totally becoming a fan! ... and maybe a hooligan...
TODAY:
1. while walking into the centro social to get breakfast, i had to pass a guard holding a very-large-gun (i´d say 3 1/2 - 4 feet long, at least), keeping watch while another guard put money in the ATM. and we´re not just talking holding this gun at his side. he was holding it in a way so that everyone walking past him would know he could use it if necessary. well, good morning to you, too. because that´s not AT ALL scary....
2. i fed bread to my baby duck and laid out in the sun by the pool in between my classes this afternoon.
3. dinner was at a churrería on cholula´s zócalo tonight. we sat outside (with a heater near us, thank goodness, as i was still dressed like it was 1pm!) and ate chapatas (that´s confusing spanish for ¨italian - seasoned sandwich¨) and churros for desert - filled with gooey, melted nutella. oh hey, heaven.
AND MEXICO CITY:
only in mexico can you climb an ancient aztec pyramid and be within eyesight of a mcdonalds and a kentucky fried chicken. two pyramids were involved in our trip (bringing the total number of pyramids i´ve seen / climbed to ... about 59). the first was in the middle of a lava field and dynamite had to be used to fully excavate it. the second - the hill of the star - was at the top of a large hill (mount adams style, only bigger and more forest-y), which we climbed... in flipflops. the last part of the climb involved a vertical rock slope. so basically i rock-climbed in flipflops and it was the highlight of my life. the view from the top was superb. in every direction, you could see the city. i swear that city never ends! they don´t call it the biggest city in the world for nothing. (and if i´m incorrect that it´s the biggest in the world, my apologies. it might just be in the western hemisphere. either way, it´s enormous...)
museums were also visited - including frida kahlo and diego rivera´s studios (yes, feel free to be jealous), frida kahlo and diego rivera´s house, diego rivera´s museum of ancient aztec / mayan / olmec statues and figurines, and el convento del carmen, an old convent (for monks? i don´t ask questions.) that´s been converted into a museum. my favorite part was definitely seeing the mummies in the basement. unfortunately, i don´t remember much else about the museum because i was so excited about the mummies that came at the end. however, it should be noted that the monks living in the convent were forced to sleep on wooden beds with logs as pillows. not so comfy. and back to the mummies - these aren´t wrapped pharoahs, egypt-style that we´re talking about. these are people that were buried normally, but were naturally mummified due to elements present in the soil, and are basically still fully intact. they still had clothes, hair, teeth, and really shriveled skin. one looked exactly like the grim reaper and one even had its tongue sticking out! they´re terrifyingly amazing. i love mummies.
we went to a mall and i bought a shirt. the cashier almost kept my credit card (i´m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume this was an accident), but i´m pretty awesome and negotiated with him in spanish to get it back. we also went to a super-artsy street market and i was promised that there was an indian restaurant nearby, but i couldn´t find it. super huge letdown right there. we went out for dinner in the zona rosa (and i was very cautious, per michael´s advice) - let´s just call it the clifton of mexico city. we ate at a mariachi club and in the middle of the show, the singer welcomed everyone from our group by name. then he came to our table to sing to us! pretty sweet.
all in all, a very good weekend. next weekend we´re headed back to the mexico city area to view teotihuacan and tula, otherwise known as more aztec ruins! we´re climbing more pyramids (LOTS more pyramids) and by the end of this trip i might want to be an archeologist...
before this weekend comes, however, is the UDLA party of the century tomorrow night. apparently the whole campus goes to some bar for a huge all-UDLA party. fun times! i´ll be sure to report on this later...
my new favorite mexican-ism is using the word ¨super¨before everything. only it´s not pronounced the way we normally say it. it´s like ¨sue-pear.¨ if something´s really easy, it´s ¨super-fácil!¨ it´s basically become my favorite word to say, other than incómodo (awkward, literally uncomfortable), which still describes almost every aspect of my life.
and it should also be noted that one of my roommates was a soccer hooligan for four years. yes, the kind you can read about in ¨how soccer explains the world.¨ her team is the pumas, in mexico city, so if you´re a soccer fan, you should check them out. i´m totally becoming a fan! ... and maybe a hooligan...
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