Settling in

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Right now i am full of icecream. Us girls sussed out the surrounding area and found an ice creamery thisafternoon. It was an interesting experience... especially with little spanish under our belts. I think the teeneagers working at the icecreamery found us quite amusing watching us try to order... and the first one went behind the counter to giggle at our attempts to communicate instead of serving us. It was delicious anyhow... we tried Lemon and cream, coffee, banana and pistachio! While we were sitting in the icecreamery a little girl of about 5 came up to us... did not say anything... and pulled the most adorable sad eyes face. It took us a while to figure out what she wanted. First we tried a few of our badly constucted spanish sentences ( How are you?, We no speak spanish). It took us a while to figure out she was asking for money!

We have had some really good lectures at the university in the last couple of days.. 3 - 4 hrs long. But they are really interesting and we find ourselves asking lots of questions about the mexican culture and health system. Today we all bought La Salle University jumpers, which may come in handy as the weather has turned slightly colder.

Yesterday We went on a cultural excursion, firstly to the museum of anthropology. This museum is very large and follows the mexican history right through the ages, covering the Mayas, Aztecs etc and houses lots of artifacts, ruins and skeletons which have been uncovered. We also saw the first form of basketball hoops which dates back thousanda of years. The ball had to be put through the giant hoop using any part of the body except the hands. We took lots of photos. We then headed to Chapultepec Castle, which used to be the home of presidents, and Mexico's one time french emporer, Maximillian. It is a beautiful castle with many rooms still unchanged from times when it was lived in ( Lauren was ready to move in). It also houses murals, paintings and artifacts from the time of spanish rule in mexico and the mexican revolution.

The food is still one of the most exciting parts of the day and we have tried more Mexican dishes. Yesterday we went to lunch at a restaurent owned by the house mama of two of the girls in our course. We had enchiladas and croquettas made with tuna and potato. For desert we had a sweet flat jelly like product, made from fruit, whose name escapes me. For breakfast yesterday we had a sweet, muffin - like food made from and wrapped in corn leaves. Tonight we are having cactus.

We have pending plans to discover mexican nightloife in the next few days. Tonight Luis and his older brother are taking us to a club? with a dj. Tommorow night the mexican students have offered to take our entire course out for a lesson in tequila. However we will try not to be too tired as we have a busy shedule over the next few days.

Adios!

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Comments

[Meredith]

well done bloggers
Hey girls, loved all the info - keep blogging. Sounds amazing. Looking forward to you coming home Lauren and helping us cook up a more traditional mexican feast.