Mexico is way better than Europe
Trip Start
Feb 09, 2010
1
13
Trip End
May 21, 2010
Where I stayed
Mexico City, Central Mexico and Gulf Coast, Mexico
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Today was our first full day, and boy was it full. We met down in our hotel fro breakfast at 8AM, then we headed out for a full day of walking in the beautiful Mexican sun. First we went to the Catedral Metropolitana, which is a large cathedral in the town square with a lot of beautiful gold sculptures and other decorations. Big churches like that are always intimidating because there are people praying or confessing, so I felt weird being there knowing that I hadn't been baptized in the Catholic church. I felt the same way while I was in Turkey in the huge Mosques. I don't think that anyone really notices us though.
After the cathedral we went to the ruins of Templo Mayor, which used to be the center of Tenochtitlan. It's quite astounding that there is this archeological site that is over 1,000 years old right smack dab in the middle of one of the world's largest cities. Picture having ancient pyramid ruins in the middle of New York City, it's surreal. Inside the museum, our professor taught us how to take notes using sketches. We each have our own journal that we do our sketches in. I suck a drawing, but I did my best! I know that after awhile my skills will develop :)
The weather here is so wonderful. It's sunny, but not too hot and not too humid. It's just warm and nice. I was growing tired of the cold European weather during January. Hence the title of this entry. The people in Mexico are much more friendly and eager to talk to you than they are in Europe. And the weather is, of course, much more pleasant.
After Templo Mayor we stopped at the roof top of a Holiday Inn to have some refreshments. I felt like I was on vacation with the great view and our ice cold drinks. And to think, all of my friends back home have to sit in class all day. How sad, haha. The one thing here that is hard to get used to is the endless cat calling. Men whistled at us at least 100 times today. We were also called "gueras", which basically means white girls. Many of them would also say "OH MY GOD, beautiful women." It makes me wonder how Mexican women feel, because nobody seems to be whistling at them and telling them how gorgeous they are. I feel bad for them.
After our short break at the rooftop, we headed to the Palacio de Bellas Artes (meaning Palace of Beautiful Art in english, pretty much). It had a lot of modern Mexican murals there, huge murals! I can't even envision how these painters were able to finish them. They all had so much detail, color, and symbolism. We weren't able to take photos unfortunately.
The food here has been very good so far. It's fairly light and easy to digest, and it's cheap! That's another reason why Mexico is better than Europe, everything is low-cost.
We just returned from a bar that we went to with some guys that we met at a hostel near our hotel. A couple of them were French, one was Columbian, one was German, and another was Canadian. The night was a mix of English, Spanish, and French, but we had a great time. Here, they drink what is called "Mezcal", which is like a smokey tequila. It's really gross and really strong and it burns really bad. I didn't have the balls to take a shot of it, but I tasted it and was displeased haha. One of the guys from the hostel (the Columbian) drank his fair share, and was changing the songs on the boom box in the bar. He started playing "Sexy Bitch" really loud in the bar and singing along. It was pretty entertaining. I took plenty of photos :)
I will post my pictures tomorrow, I promise! I even have a video from the bar we went to. Tomorrow will be a tiring day, because we are going to Teotihuacan to climb the huge pyramids! It should be really beautiful and exciting. I miss all of my friends and family so much, sorry that this entry is so long!
love,
Sam
Comments
Glad you are having a good time...The "whiskey and men make me a little nervous" please don't forget you are there as part of a school program and will need to study. I miss you- weather sounds beautiful-rainy in Oregon
Love Mom