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Published: January 17th 2011
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Night 1. Thursday
Tonight was our first night out in Mexico City. Invited by Luis, we headed into town with Clare, Ayen, most of our housemates and a variety of Luis' friends to listen to some DJs at a small club. We both had our first Mexican tequila here (my first tequila ever)...I didn't mind it, but Jo said it was "as bad as Australian tequila". I think our Mexican hosts were quite offended by this. We thought the dress code for ladies was a bit of a curiosity...jeans, boots, jackets and scarves were in, while dresses (like what we had) were out. Using the international language of dance we communicated well with our new Mexican friends (we introduced them to a very nifty move called the surfboard) including our housemate, Hammunrabi, who speaks no english.
Day 1. Friday
Today we were scheduled to visit an Asilo (old people's home). Jo really enjoyed greeting every single old person we saw (which was a lot). After a tour of the home we hung out with a bunch or abuelas (nannas)...they sang songs to us and we sang songs to them...including a lovely a capella version of ''happy birthday'' to a lady
called Carmelita who turns 100 this week.
Night 2. Friday
After a quick afternoon nap, we headed off with Clare and Ayen to meet the rest of the Aussies and our Mexican friend Andy who had promised to take the group out for the night. He had made a reservation at a small place not far from the uni, but when we got there they either didn't care or had forgotten we were coming. After we finally made it inside we discovered that hand signals are not always the most accurate form of communication when Jo accidentally ordered a litre of beer for us. Each. It was a good night to hang out, relax and get to know the rest of the group doing our course. I also had my first (completely unexpected) salsa lesson in about a square meter of space in the tiny bar, making me even more excited for our scheduled lesson next Tuesday...I think I will nedd to find some salsa shoes somewhere though before then! The only let down of the night was that all drinks were put on a tab...and there was a big gap between the total bill and the amount of
cash people had given us. The people who were last to leave were left to make up the difference, which unfortunately included Andy and his friend who had put so much effort into organising the night. We will do our best to get them their money back during the week.
Day 2. Saturday...was a massive day.
First up we took the Turibus around the city to see various statues and important buildings and gear. We hopped off the bus in the town square (Zocalo) and walked over to the National Palace to see the Riviera murals and have coffee with the president. Unfortunately the president was in a conference at the time, so we were unable to join him. The security here was really wild and included bag searches (they took all food, water, chewing gum, lighters...), screening (my belt set the alarm off so I had to go through again) and pat downs.
Next we walked across to the biggest cathedral I've ever seen with a lot of gold, a lot of Mother Marys and a big big organ. We were a little disappointed at the commercialisation of the cathedral through as we walked passed all the Mary
T-shirts, keyrings and magnets at the gift shop on the way out.
After lunch at a hotel restaurant called the Holiday Inn (with the best coffee we've had since a long time) we were given the afternoon off to explore. Jo and I chose to hang around the Zocalo with some of the other girls and ended up spending most our afternoon in a line at Zara's department store (somehow it was still entertaining though).
We caught taxis back to the uni (which was really scary because the traffic is wild and our driver got lost) then headed to the local plaza...and ended up back in another Zara's department store. We then walked home to nap.
Night 3. Saturday
Even though we went home to nap, we only got in about 20 minutes of sleep before Luis (our Mexican 'brother') invited us to Wikipedia's 10th birthday bash...Mexico City style. Apparently people all over the world celebrated this day(?). Before we really knew what was going on, Jo and I (Clare and Ayen stayed home) were in the car with Luis and his friends heading to the Zocalo again. (We had more people than seatbelts, but apparently cops don't care
about things like that here.) Before we went in to the 'party', we happened upon a group of very keen Mexicans dancing their hearts out with feathers and wooden beads on their ankles. We were told that these people were carrying on the traditional aztec dancing from way back. It definately made the night worth it even though we were tired...we were also invited to attend lessons next time we are in Mexico City (I think we were both quite happy to watch though). We finally made it to the birthday party...which was bizzare. The man who invented wikipedia (my Dad's arch nemesis, I'm sure) was doing a teleconference with some Mexicans (an odd mix of spanish and english...although we weren't quite sure which was which at times), then some electronica bands came on and did weird stuff. We enjoyed the night, but were absolutely knackered (a word I introduced into our new friends' english vocalulary) from our lack of down time over the past few days, so we played the Cinderellas of the night and escaped at midnight.
Day 3. Sunday
Another big day. We headed a little further away from the city center today to visit the
pyramids of the sun and moon. Ont the way we were astounded by the sad sprawling poverty of this massive city as we watched kilometre after kilometre of little square cement houses (or shacks) fly past the bus window. The pyramids were amazing when we got there (just like in the movie The Road To El Dorado...but better!) and wew were constantly surrounded by venders selling trinkets and T-shirts. Although most of us were able to say 'no gracias!' with conviction, Jo pretty quickly had ended up with a variety of items including a large stone mask we decided to call Dante (after our most... um... memorable student guide from La Salle). We fought through the mass of tourists and made it to the top of the sun pyramid before recharging our energy (by lifting up our arms as we were told to...worked wonders...) then climbed down.
Lunch was at a restaurant called Restaurant El Jaguar (complete with mariarchies, aztec drummers and of course, a gift shop) then we drove back into the city to Basalica de Guateloupe. The seven churches surrounding the large central square were very pretty (and scary..some of them were literally sinking into the soft ground), but once again I was really disappointed with the commercialisation of the place. More Mary t-shirts and trinkets and statues and a thousand other things you could buy and even a travelator passing beneath the massive Mother Mary of Guateloupe in the newest cathedral (which was available for tourists even during mass). There were many beggers on the road heading towards the churches.
Gil prepared a quick (but amazing as always) supper when we got home. We will not be going out tonight.
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