Mexico City: Days 3,4, and 5

So I know you've all been on the edge of your seats wondering if my luggage ever came and yes, it did! I appreciate my own clothes so much but shout out to Ombeline for letting me borrow her clothes!

A great end to a great day? Arriving home to my suitcase!!

Monday we got up early and we to the university, Universidad Iberoamericana for our first day of orientation. It's about an hour away from the convent by taxi, but I didn't mind since I got to see so much of the city. The school is located in what's called the Silicon Valley of Mexico D.F. and the nickname makes sense. It's on top of a hill and all gated in, but the neighborhood is completely different than every other one I've been in since I arrived. It's home to the HP headquarters, Santander bank, Roche Brothers, etc. There is even a Chili's restaurant (I almost want to go and see if their food is the same...). Anyway, we got the university and ate breakfast in the cafeteria. And guess what they had? Only the best breakfast food in the universe: omelets. I was so pumped and it lived up to my TDR-level expectations--delicious! We took a tour of the university which is gorgeous, but also very big and confusing. All of the buildings are connected. Mexican students usually live at home until they get married so there are no dorms. Next, we had a two hour run-down of Mexican history from this awesome professor of communications named Juan Eduardo. He informed us that pretty much everyone in Mexico is named Juan and Maria. Another fun fact that I was unaware of: the Zocólo, the main plaza of the city with the palace and the cathedral is actually built on top of ruins. And not ruins like, oh there used to be something here and they tore it down. I mean legitimately built on top of a bunch of pyramids. Insane.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the city after discovering that basically all of the museums close on Mondays. We went back to the Zocólo and went in the cathedral and wandered around the main plaza. What I didn't notice Saturday night is the number of people camped out in the center of the plaza protesting a variety of mistreatments. Whether they were asking for workers rights, better education, or an end to the drug war, they were all living together in tents in the middle of the plaza outside the national palace. Fascinating. We ended up eating dinner at this sort of touristy place overlooking the plaza, but it was worth the tourist factor. The food was great, I had sopes which are sort of like a small tortilla with different toppings, mine had spicy shredded beef and some type of fruit on the top? It was delicious and I also got guacamole which was delicious. Not to mention, we were eating on a roof with an amazing view of the Zocólo and the surrounding neighborhood. After that, we went over to the Palacio de Bellas Artes and people-watched outside for a while before heading home on the metro.

View of the Catedral Nacional from my dinner table

On Tuesday, we got up early and headed with the group from Loyola Chicago to Teotihuacán to climb the pyramids of the sun and the moon. We had a chartered bus and tour guide, which was pretty interesting because on the way out of the city he detailed all of the things we were seeing. The mountains along the city limits are covered in small houses, all along the side. Our guide told us that when people get married, they build additions above their parents houses, so many of the houses are awkwardly high.

Teotihuacán itself was beautiful. It's crazy to imagine that at some point an entire civilization lived there. Hiking the pyramids was tough, but the view and the experience was worth it.

On top of the Piramide de la Luna

View of the Piramide de la Luna from Piramide del Sol

 

On our way out of Teotihuacán we stopped at this touristy restaurant just outside the park and the food was pretty gross. Even our bus driver (a big Mexican man named Alejandro) didn't feel so hot afterward. It made me grateful that I've been eating delicious, pretty authentic food so far. Then we stopped at this farm that uses cactus plants to make a number of things, many tequila and textiles. It was so cool to see how one plant can be turned into an actual product. Then we headed back to the city and took a guided tour of the Palacio Nacional. It was beautiful, but the most striking thing were Diego Rivera's murals which are all over the palace and are a visual representation of Mexican history.

One of Diego Rivera's murals in the national palace

We took the metro back, which was sort of a new experience because it was during rush hour. During rush hour they have a women's only section, which was different. All of a sudden we realized that we were the only women on the platform and there was a collective "OHHHH" from the group when we realized it was rush hour. The car was much calmer and less aggressive than before, definitely an interesting change. Also, if I do say so myself, we're becoming pros at the metro.

Today we went back to the university for orientation with all 300 Mexican students participating in our program. Definitely overwhelming. Not sure if I've said this yet, but I'm getting used to sticking out. With my blond hair and blue eyes it's pretty clear that I'm a gringa, but it's definitely weird to get stared at everywhere I go. Anyway, orientation went pretty smoothly and I got to meet the Mexican students I'll be working with, which was exciting. Everyone was really friendly and I'm excited to get to know them better.

We had lunch at the university which was pretty good. One of the things I had was rice with a egg (over easy) which was great and reminded me of Spain where I ate egg on everything. I tried to order something called a "Cape Cod" at the juice bar on campus but they were out of blood oranges, so I couldn't get it. This made no sense to me because I have never eaten a blood orange on Cape Cod.

We spent the afternoon at the Museo de Anthropología, which is HUGE. It showcases indigenous cultures that are extinct but also ones that are still around. The most interesting was the Chiapas section because that's where I'll be going, so it was good to put a visual to all of the reading I've been doing. We metroed back and decided to try some street fruit near the convent (and yes Mom and Dad, I know that it could possibly have bacteria but we watched it get peeled in front of us and the man was very clean and had bottled water not tap don't worry!) The mangoes looked so good we decided to risk maybe getting sick for the sake of the mango and building up our stomachs. It's been about 4 hours and so far so good.

Tomorrow is our last day of orientation and then we're off to Tapachula on Friday morning! Crazy! Rachel and I will be working at the same site and we found out yesterday that it is less of an office and more of a community center. We'll be working pretty closely with kids which will be great. Can't wait to see what Chiapas has in store for me!