Escuela

We arrived to our host city last Saturday. After a somewhat bouncy 45 minute flight from Mexico City mountain tops emerged through the clouds, and the outskirts of the city became visible through the mist, surrounded by a patchwork of fields. At the airport we were picked up by our host mom, who brought us back to her beautiful home. Our house is almost like a hostel because there are four other american students who are also staying here, although they are attending a different school. Our host mom has been very welcoming and hospitable, she has a cook and a cleaning lady who have been preparing us excellent food. On Sunday we had a chance to explore the city. It has many old buildings with beautiful architecture and cobblestone streets. As in Mexico City the amount of colors here is very beautiful, the buildings come in an array of pastel colors which improve your mood just to look at. Downtown there is a market which sells just about everything, although the specialty of the region is grasshoppers with coated thickly in something that appears to be chili powder. My goal is to be brave enough to try one before I leave, but I doubt I will become that courageous in the next two months... Another specialty of the region is cheese. The cheese here is very thick, with an appearance almost like string cheese, it has a very pungent smell and a little bit of a different after taste than I am used to. Being a Wisconsin girl I absolutely adore cheese, and can eat an impressive amount of it. But my cheese consumption has gone to a whole new level here, and I'm actually starting to get a little tired of it. Even I am impressed by the amount of cheese that goes into, enchiladas and quesadillas foods which I have been eating frequently. Something that I have really enjoyed since coming here is Mango. At the market I bought mango for around 25 cents, and it was some of the best I have ever had. It seems to be common in the region because you can see trees laden with mangoes as you walk down the street. My goal is to have on fall on me some day as I am walking so I can get a free meal.. Yesterday was our first day of school. We had three hours of class: grammar, culture and literature. Afterwards we had two whole hours of salsa dancing lessons which was fun but tiring. Yesterday we also felt our first earthquake, we were sitting in Literature class when there was a tiny little tremor. I hardly noticed it but our professor had us stand outside for a few minutes afterwards to make sure it wouldn't get more serious. Today will bring more school, salsa and most likely mangoes which are beginning to make up daily life for me here in Mexico.

Pyramids and Ciudad de Mexico

Yesterday our group got to go visit two ancient Aztec pyramids. Called the pyramid of the sun and the moon. To get there we had to drive about an hour from the city center. On our way we made a stop at the famous basilica de la virgen de Guadelupe. The virgen of Guadelupe is an extremely important religious symbol in Mexico. The story goes that she appeared before an indigenous man named Juan Diego in 1531, speaking in his native language she wanted Juan Diego to ask the archbishop to build a church in her honor. When Juan Diego asked to see the archbishop he was dismissed. In order to prove that she was real to the archbishop the virgen turned some branches that Juan Diego picked into roses which were only found in Spain. When Juan Diego presented these roses to the archbishop, an image of the Virgen appeared on Juan Diego's cloak. With this proof a church was constructed in honor of the Virgen. To this day the image of the Virgen on Juan Diego's cloak hangs inside the basilica, only now it is framed in gold. The Virgen of Guadelupe was so important to the Mexican people because she appeared as a native women, she had dark skin and spoke the native language. Therefore, she was accepted by the indigenous population, as a result Catholicism became the dominant religion throughout the country.

At the site of the basilica there are multiple churches. The first Basilica created has sunk a lot, it is now extremely slanted. Therefore, in the 1970's a new Basilica was created.

Today, thousands and thousands of people come to honor the Virgen each day, many of whom bring flowers. Every week day there is a mass in the basilica each hour from 7am-7pm excluding lunch hours. The streets surrounding the basilica are filled with shops selling gold trinkets, candles, rosaries and other religious items. After our stop at the basilica we drove through the neighborhoods on the outskirts on Mexico city in order to reach the pyramids. The colors were overwhelming. The bright pink, turquoise, and peachy orange houses were mainly small and packed tightly together up the sides of the mountains. Some were daringly close to the edges of outcroppings. At the side of the highway were some horses peacefully grazing as cars zoomed by only fifteen or so feet away, making for a somewhat incongruous scene. The site of the pyramids was inundated with shops selling a variety of trinkets, sombreros, candy etc to masses of tourists. The site was once an old city with a long street stretching between to huge pyramids, pyramid of the sun and pyramid of the moon. The largest of which the pyramid of the sun is over 200 feet high. We got to hike up to the top, which was a tiring climb especially given the altitude. My lungs and legs felt like they were on fire by the time I reached the top but it was well worth it. The view was absolutely gorgeous. Looking down you could see what use to be the ancient city built by the Teotihuacanos. The ruins suggest how big the city was at one point, it is estimated to have been populated by around 125,000 people at one point. The pyramid seemed very extravagant since it is assumed to have just been used as a temple in order for the people to feel closer to the gods. It is amazing that it could have been built in a time before modern construction equipment, all with human power.

After our climb we took the bus to a nearby restaurant where we learned about the plant maguay or in english agave.

For centuries it has been very useful for the local people. It's fibers served as thread, and its' spikey core was used as a needle, the waxy coating on its' leaves was used as paper, furthermore it produces a substance which was used as soap. Most famously however, when fermented it's juice is used to produce pulque. It is a tradicional beverage with a low alcohol content of only around 2%. We were able to sample it, it had a smell like yeasty bread, and pleasantly sweet flavor almost like slightly yeasty honey. This morning we went to a huge indoor market. To walk there we passed dozens of street venders selling a variety of foods, mainly consisting of tortillas and meats. The market was made up of an overwhelming amount of colors. The most popular items were, painted ceramics, brightly colored clothes, beaded bracelets and small trinkets. I bought a belt from a vender who actually cut it to the correct size right in front of me. Walking back was difficult on the crowed main street, there were so many people that to walk you had to weave in between people and really watch where you were going to avoid collisions. It is amazing how colorful Mexico is, in contrast to Wisconsin. So far I am definitely loving all of the bright colors.

Pictures

Our cafecito. an example of the beautiful architecture An ancient statue of an aztec goddess The temple ruins in the center of the city Painting by Diego Rivera in el palacio nacional Courtyard in el palacio nacional From the cactus garden in el palacio nacional Palacio Nacional Churros con chocolate on top of the torre latinoamericano

Martes y Miercoles en La Ciudad de Mexico

Today was my second full day in Mexico, and the past two days have definitely been busy. On Tuesday we started the day with a buffet breakfast at the hotel. I got to try papaya juice for the first time, it was an interesting breakfast because they had a lot of foods which I wouldn't consider to be breakfast items, such as semi-soggy chips basking in some sort of green chili sauce, mixed vegetables, meat and even what appeared to be barbecued chicken drumsticks. After breakfast we headed out to the museum of anthropology. Along the way we got to see a lot more of the city, with narration from our tour guide. From the anthropology museum it is clear the Mexico has an extremely rich history. We were able to see a lot of artifacts from the indigenous cultures which lived in the region pre-colonization. Something interesting which I found out was that Mexico city was first built by the native Americans who first lived here, it was an island in the middle of a huge lake. The city was originally full of canals, and when the Spanish arrived they tore down the much of the native people's buildings which filled in parts of the lake. Because Mexico city was built on what was a lake, the water table is extremely high. As a result many buildings are actually sinking, and as some ground sinks other parts rise. For this reason most of the buildings in the city are very slanted. There seems to be very little level ground. Even some streets are slightly buckled in the middle. Another interesting thing about Mexico city is that the city center called el Zocalo, is built over the ruins of the ancient aztec city. In fact the remnants of a huge aztec temple are being excavated right next to the palacio nacional at the center of the city. At the museum it was interesting to hear more about the culture that was in this area before the arrival of Europeans. The civilization from this area believed that human sacrifice was necessary in order to appease the gods. As a result they were very warlike, they went to war for the purpose of capturing prisoners to sacrifice. There were many weapons in the museum from the time period which still appeared terrifyingly sharp and in good condition. There were also a lot of stone statues of Gods, on which people actually performed sacrifices. It was very interesting to hear about the ancient culture, but also a little creepy since they liked to sacrifice human hearts. In the afternoon after a lunch of Mollete (french bread covered in re-fried beans and melted cheese), we went to explore a wax museum and Ripley's Believe it or not Museum. The wax museum was very similar to the one in downtown Hollywood except with many historic mexican figures whom I didn't recognize. Later in the day we explored the city streets on our own and got cafe in a tiny mexican resturaunt. So far I have been very impressed with how beautiful the architecture is hear, it is a gorgeous city. That night we went up the Torre de Latinoamerica. Which was 44 floors high. At the top there was an open air area which was only enclosed by metal netting. It provided a beautiful view of the city stretching out in all directions. From that height the size of Mexico city is very impressive, it goes as far as you can see in all directions even climbing up the sides of the mountains which surround the city from either side. It also looks very crowded from above, the amount of close together houses and cars is truly striking. After the tower we got Churros with hot chocolate, which was muy delicioso. Today was another busy day, we walked over to el Palacio Nacional which historically housed the president but is now used for more symbolic purposes. It was absolutely beautiful inside was a beautiful cactus garden, and fountain. In the walls around the courtyard we were able to see original paintings by the famous Diego Rivera depicting the history of the country. We then walked to the museum del templo mayor, which is an area where you can walk through the remnants of an old temple. Their were two sides of the temple, one which was for death and sacrifice and another which was for life and rain. Our tour guide told us the the aztec culture saw these two sides in everything. There was an indoor portion of the museum which housed an astounding amount of artifacts which had incredibly all been found in the area around the city center. It is amazing how much history is literally right under your feet in Mexico City. Because to this day they are still finding ancient artifacts in this area. In fact our tour guide told us that there hasn't been much new construction in this area because they do not want to disturb the archaeological artifacts. My favorite part of the day however was when we visited a Pasteleria (or cake shop). There was an incredible amount of extremely elaborate gigantic cakes on display. They are for celebrations like birthdays, quinceneras weddings etc. The shop also sold an overwhelming variety of baked goods, such as sweet breads, cookies, danishes, croissants. There was so many delicious looking options that it was honestly stressful deciding what to try. Our group brought back a huge amount of baked goods and ended up splitting them between us so I was able to try a wide variety. Definitely the best part of the day. The altitude seems to have an affect on me because by five this afternoon all I really wanted to do was take a nap. Tonight however we are going to a folk ballet at el palacio de las bellas artes which is a beautiful building a few blocks down the road.

First Day!

Hola Amigos! I have now been in Mexico just over 5 hours. I arrived to La Ciudad de Mexico at 12:30 this afternoon. From the first glimpse between the clouds I could tell that I was far from Wisconsin. Below the clay colored rooftops lay close together in zigzagging streets, that sprawled for what seemed to be forever even wrapping around the distant mountains. The air looked thick and hazy from above, the city seemed cloaked in a brown haze. Finally stepping off the plane was exhilarating, the airport was buzzing with people, the sounds of many conversations blending together into an incoherent murmur. It was amazing to be able to actual here Spanish again, and I was surprised how easily it seemed to come back. During the plane ride the flight attendants had given some of the directions in Spanish, and many of the passengers were talking amongst themselves, so my brain had slowly began to transition over the last several hours. By the time I arrived in Mexico City it seemed as if some subconscious switch had been hit and I found myself thinking in Spanish. I was honestly shocked when I asked an airport attendant for directions and the words actually flowed out less-awkwardly than expected and she replied, (I couldn't believe she could actually understand me!). We got transported to the hotel, and it was crazy being able to drive through the small winding streets. Many were narrow and highly congested, lined with brightly colored shops boasting an array of unexpected items I noticed balloons, brooms, fruits. It was a hodge-podge of the unexpected. Our taxi driver told me that the expansive market we drove by sells everything, from pets to clothes and I don't doubt it. Another thing that was interesting was that many people were hanging out their wash to dry off the balconies of apartment buildings or wherever which is something you don't see in the USA. The streets were also packed with an incredible amount of people, as well as cars which were weaving among each other very daringly. We are staying in an absolutely beautiful hotel right in the center of the city. It is right across the block from the Palacio Nacional which looks like a real life castle it's pretty cool. We are also right on a busy street. We already ventured out to a neighboring bakery, I had my first Mexican meal consisting of a sweet nutty bread which I bought for a little over a dollar. I already know I will be a regular at any panaderia (bakery) I can find :) Tomorrow we will start touring the city, let the adventure begin!