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Published: January 31st 2011
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We are both a bit surprised at how fast this half way point of our trip has snuck up on us. I love that after three weeks in Mexico City we are still being surprised by so many things everyday.
On Wednesday we only had a half day at La Salle so we were able to come home for lunch. Lunch at home is always fun as Ale's friends never cease to entertain us...usually in Spanish, but we get the drift of the conversation (and whatever we completely miss, Ale translates for us!). On Wednesday night we had the option to go to the Ballet Folklório...a Mexican 'ballet' that the four of us chose to attend. It was held at the Museum of Anthropology in an outdoor area, so it was a touch chilly, but so so much fun! The dances were really clever with choreography from vaious Mexican states and the most amazing costumes! The music was mostly played live by a small band fully decked out in Mexicana apparel that stood on the side of the stage for the majority of the show. We had so much fun (I think I giggled the whole way through) and this is
the only ballet I've ever been to where the performers throw streamers into the crowd. The only downer of the night was that Paco the amazing taco man had shut by the time we got home and tried to get some food.
Thursday was another half day at uni (a lecture on private and public health care...the systems are very complex, and still not everyone in the country has health insurance in the end), so we took advantage of the free afternoon to make a small dent in our group assignment. We were moderately successful. At 4pm we were back at La Salle, however, for a Mexican Cooking class. We made Sopa Azteca (soup with fried tortillas in it..and you can buy all the necessary ingredients in Australia!) with guacamole and sampled a chile stuffed with beans. It was all pretty darn good (and not too hot, despite the high use of chiles) and at the end of the lesson we got the email address of our teacher so he can send us other Mexican recipes if we decide we need them. I have already decided that I do.
Luis and Jorge (Ale and Gil's sons) along with their friends,
had managed to get us and some of our uni friends tickets to an 'event' in town on Thursday night. We didn't actually know what it was we were going to, but we all said yes.
I think I should take a second to praise the amazing driving skills of some of our new friends here in Mexico City. It is very scary for us Australians (especially me, who considers four cars to be a traffic jam), but we have gotten everywhere we needed to go safely over the last three weeks despite the craziness and apparent lack of road rules.
So we all went to this event, that turned out to be some kind of YouTube awards night held by a yoghurt company called 'dnnup', but the main reason we were going was for the bands/DJs who played afterwards. We had a lot of fun, but were shocked that on the way home we were charged to drive into a McDonalds carpark (especially since no one in our car even bought anything, anyway!).
We had a very interesting experience on Friday attending a private rehab clinic as part of our health program. This clinic was run by a very
very passionate but curiously crazy lady who I'm sure would make an excellent cartoon character. We spent the morning helping out with the patients (she uses very odd techniques) and then were able to try out these techniques on each other. Jo got a face massage, while I had my legs talcum powdered and pricked with these little prickly pizza wheel looking things. I still do not know what this therapy was for. Dealing with the patients was very draining, as there were some very sad cases. We had a really late lunch after the clinic, then went home and slept (despite multiple invitations to do stuff/attend parties etc).
Our program does not allow rest on the weekends, so on Saturday morning we met up at La Salle and headed off to Puebla for an overnight trip. We slept a lot of the way, but the bits where I was awake, I really enjoyed watching the changing landscapes now that we were finally out of the city. On the way we climbed what would have been the biggest pyramid in the world if the Spaniads hadn't have destroyed it and built a church on top. Puebla, although quite large, had
a very quaint town center that our bus hardly fitted in (we are talking three or even five point turns to get around the corners in places). We had the most massive lunch ever on this day...about five courses plus tea and coffee. We spent our afternoon and night exploring markets, eating churros, buying things at markets and checking out a very very fancy catholic cathedral. We stayed at a nice hotel (Jo and I shared a room) and watched the Disney Channel in Spanish before bed. We had pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast in the morning along with fruit, toast and coffee. I have discovered that I do actually like paw paw. We visited a museum this morning with a bit more about Mexcian history, before we had some spare time. During this time I went with my friend Abby and watched a contempory dance concert held at the Casa de la Cultura. It was very strange and every dance went for about 20 minutes. We left early.
We are now back at home in Mexico City working again on our assignment. We are thinking of getting tacos from Paco very soon. He had better be open tonight!
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