Mexico City:First impressions

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I'm sitting on the roof of my hostal in the Zona Rosa of Mexico City. Huge skyscrapers and various shaped buildings block my view of this noisy city, and block that noise as well. I have had an amazing reception in the city so far.



Hell, even on the airplane my little abuela sat next to me, sharing her cookies, while we all congratulate a successful engagement proposal that just happened a couple seats ahead of us. Flying in you can really see the swampy past that Mexico City has risen above to become the center of activity on the country. As soon as I landed and wandered around a bit trying to find the Metro a wonderful lady took me to the Metro station and then, not only did she show me how to handle everything, she gave me her metro card with a couple free rides on it. Can you believe this generosity? She had asked me to come stay with her, but I had to refuse given the very short duration of my trip. She gave me her number and implored me to be safe, for everyone's sake.



I've already gone through the gamut of questions about my age, my status, why I travel alone, and I got all of them in the US by my taxi driver too. My hostal is directly off the Metro. I know I've said it before, but if you're going to stay in any city figure out the metro system and you can go everywhere, do anything. Tomorrow I will catch the metro to the stop where I then catch a minibus out to the pyramids for a day of looking around, being a geeky tourist.



I feel good, I'm in my element. I was a bit frazzled the last two days, but those worries are gone for now. I don't know how to describe it. In academia there is so much pressure, and I put a lot of it on myself to be better, smarter (insert 6m dollar man theme here), it's a relief to be here, where just by virtue of being here I feel complete.



It's been dark since I've been here so no pics today. More tomorrow. A

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