Busy Busy Busy

I have not updated for a while because I have been so busy. I just realized I barely posted anything about Mexico City.

The first stop we made was Teotihuacan. I climbed the third tallest pyramid in the world. Standing on one of the pyramids, I took a picture of the whole city...or what remains of it. It is amazing to see the very organized layout of what the city looked like at one point. Those Aztecs were some very smart people.

Then we went to the Museum of Anthropology. This museum is too big to comprehend. You could spend a day going through it and we attempted it in less than two hours. It is something to come back for. The history was absolutely amazing as were all the artifacts they have collected.

We took the bus to our hostel in Mexico City. We had to park a little ways away and walk there. To get to the hostel we walked past the zocalo which is Mexico City's main plaza. Standing there was indescribable. The national palace is right there, which is where Mexico's government sits. It is huge. The palace is so beautiful and it takes up more than one or two blocks. Also on one side of the plaza was the national cathedral which took up another block. Those were the only two buildings we had time to see but someday I will have to come back to Mexico City and see it all. The zocalo is so beautiful and all the shops are so fancy. There is even a McDonalds and 7eleven in the same block.

The hostel in itself was worth the trip. It was eight stories high and we were on the 5th. If we opened our window, we looked down into the hostel lobby/bar. Our room was tiny with two bunk beds and our bathroom was connected to the boys room with 6 boys in it! Ten of us sharing one bathroom! We also met these people staying at the hostel from all around the world. That was amazing in itself. I love the hostel culture. I would really like to travel that way at some point in my life...just jump from hostel to hostel.

On Saturday night, we went to the bar on the roof of the hostel. We had a few drinks and talked to some people. The amazing thing for me was the city. From the roof I could see the zocalo right next to us and the national palace all lit up. The hills around the city are just full of lights from houses that extend into infinity because the city is so vast. Above me, I can't see the stars well because the intense pollution and smog blanket the city always. In the distance, there is a storm and I keep seeing flashes of lightning off in the distance. This was the moment when I just felt that this was the greatest thing. This trip has been one of the greatest adventures of my life.

Sunday was so busy. Everyone was tired and cranky and wanted to go home but I just wanted to see everything. We started out at the Templo Mayor. It was a block away from the hostel. Basically what happened was that the Spanish Conquistadors built a church on top of the main temple or pyramid of the Aztecs when Cortes came to kill (I'm sorry...I mean "christianize") all of them. In the 70's, they figured out these ruins were under a church so they have been unconvered and they are still working on excavating them. It is amazing to be standing in these Aztec ruins literally in the middle of these busy modern city. Right next to the national palace!

Then we went to the Museo de Bellas Artes. We saw a bunch of Murals of Diego Rivera. Here the building with its huge white marbel everything was as much of an attraction as the art.

Then we went to the hippy swinger liberal neighborhood of Mexico City. Here is the house and museum of Frida Kahlo. If you don't know anything about her, she was the artist with the really thick uni-brow. She had a fascinating life. She was an artist and a very famous communist and her life was full of pain because she had polio and then got into a car accident. She was also the wife of Diego Rivera who was famous in his own right. Their house is beautiful. It is gigantic and the museum is in the house. You walk through the house and see some rough sketches and other art left around as well as many objects from their lives. The amazing thing was the letters. On display there are letters between her and Diego when one of them was in Europe. They were both communists, remember? The most AMAZING AMAZING thing is that there were letters to Frida and Diego from LENIN!

On the way home, we stopped at the Plaza de tres Culturas. Here there are more ruins but thats not really why we came. In 1968 there was a massacre in this plaza of college students. It was right before the olympics in Mexico City and the students had organized to ask for more student rights. At this time the Universities were part of the state and the students wanted autonomous universities. Because of the olympics and everything, the government decided to do something about the protest. They opened fire into a huge crowd of students and profesors.

That was my Mexico City adventure. The only thing that sucked about it was that people were tired and hungover on Sunday so they just wanted to come home. I really wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to come here. Plus with my student ID, I get into all the museums for free!

This week has been all homework and stress. Last night we went out. There is a club in town called 442 (the area code...how original). If you get four girls together, you get in free and a free bottle of alcohol. There were 10 of us so we got two bottles of tequila. I have never been out dancing before in my life. By 1am the club is just packed and smokey and dark and I danced to Spanish music with friends and people I didn't know and couldn't hear because it was so loud. I had so much fun. And to think I almost didn't go!

This trip has been all about stepping out of the box for me. Never before would I have thought about sharing a bathroom with nine other people in a hostel. Never would I have wanted to spend all day on a bus driving around to museums. And never would I have bought a skirt at a Mexican department store to go out dancing all night. This trip has turned me into an adventurer in my own right and I can't wait to start planning more trips for the future.