But let's break these past few days down in terms of the fantastic times that have been had!
Friday: todo de México está paralizado ahorita
At 9am, México took on South Africa in the opening game of the 2010 World Cup. I walked to school that day with two of my housemates, and we all had the identical green México jersey on: we looked definitely like wanna-be-Méxican-gringas, no questions asked. When we got to school we took our weekly grammar exam and rushed from building 12 over to the main campus to take part in the mass-watching of the partido. The amount of national pride I felt during this 2-ish hour period was absolutely astonishing. Every television at the university was turned on to whatever channel was broadcasting the game, everyone was wearing something green, and everyone took that 2-ish hour period off to watch their home-team tear the field apart. I was chatting with one of the advisors that works at the university, and I was telling him how super-hyper-mega excited I was for this game. In concordance, he told me that todo de México está paralizado ahorita, that all of México is paralyzed right now. And it was true, you could feel every television set in the country was in, in offices and in houses, in churches and in schools. When México scored their first goal, I swear it was as if you could hear and feel the entire country erupting in complete and utter pride and bliss for the mother-team. Even though the first goal was renounced due to an off-sides call, the emotion at the time of ball-to-net was absolutely incredible, unlike anything I have ever experienced. During that game, I really started to wish I had been hecho en México...!!
Maggie Uno's brother came into México D.F. on Thursday to visit with a friend who lives in D.F. Friday morning they drove down to Cuernavaca and after the game on Friday Uno and I went and visited her brother and his friends at their house. We got to see another part of town, another walk of life, eat more delicious tacos and quesadillas... it was a good adventure on Friday. Those random experiences have been some of my favorite ones, just being able to go out and explore and experience cultural differences that you can't teach in the classroom or learn from reading a book.
As uña y carne, two peas in a pod, more or less, Maggie Uno and I have spent a large majority of our class and free time together, and have had some really great conversations. On Friday we were talking about the relationships we have built with other Gonzaga people while we are all here. When traveling, a curious mind paired with an open heart prompts you to think about where you are, who you are, who you are with, what you are doing, where you are going, what you are experiencing - thought provoking questions go on and on. You are in a different state of being, in which you share yourself with the world differently than you would if you were at home. The relationship that you build with yourself grows and changes to these traveling experiences, and the relationship that you build with others is different than the ones you would have built with them at home. Not better or worse, just, different. I realize that the word "different" isn't the most descriptive, pardon me for my lack of vocabulary. They say that the first step to truly learning another language occurs when you start to forget your own native tongue... I don't know who "they" is, but I sure hope they are right!
Saturday: the final excursion
Woke up Saturday morning with my stomach in complete rage, but eh ni modo, on with la vida!
We went on an excursion to México City, where we saw Frida Kahlo's house la Casa Azul, el Museo Dolores Olmedo, and we got to visit Xochimilco (which is similar to what México City was like 500 years ago). Frida's house is painted the most beautiful cobalt blue, and save for the missing peacocks (there were peacocks in the movie Frida and we were disappointed to find that none actually resided there) it was a work of art in and of itself. El Museo Dolores Olmedo was a huge compound on which resided a rather extremely large house, plenty of peacocks (and some babies!) and the Xoloitzcuintli, the Mexican hairless dogs that were considered sacred dogs by the Aztecs. If you have a chance to go on facebook, check out the picture of the statue and the black dogs, and good luck telling the difference between the statue and the real dogs! So weird. Xochimilco is a district in D.F. with a series of canals from Lake Xochimilco, and you can take these boats called trajineras on the canal for an hour-long boat ride. These colorful boats are painted with vibrant colors and named after, well, I am not sure what they are all named after. But while you're floating along the river smaller boats come by you selling drinks, food, micheladas (SO GOOD), jewelry etc. And mariachi bands float by on their boats. Our excursion group was too big for just one boat, so we took two different boats instead, but our boatmen attached the two together. The people on the boat behind us paid for the mariachi to play some songs, so we cheated and got to listen to them for free! There were also plenty of boats that passed us by that were having some major fiestas goin' down. Definitely heard Lady Gaga blasting from some speakers.
PRE TEXT: When I take taxis, I really enjoy looking out the windows and seeing what I see, hoping that I will discover something exciting or that I will finally obtain some general sense of direction in this city of CRAZY drivers.
Saturday night after we got back, I was took a taxi to go hang out with some friends. It had jsut started to rain (and by rain I mean torrential downpour of the sky opening up), and not more than 3 blocks from my house something shiny caught the corner of my eye. I glanced really quickly to see what it was, and it was literally a hole-in-the-wall shrine to the Virgen Guadalupe, surrounded inside and out with red and gold foil-tinsel. All this time I should have been counting how many hole-in-the-wall Virgen Guadalupe shrines I see. The Virgen Guadalupe is a huge part of Mexican life, she is often called the matron saint of Mexicans. If you haven't learned about her, here is the Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgen_de_Guadalupe
Later that night, we went to a fiesta that a local salsa/dance studio was having. Our friend is the owner of the studio, so when we got the invite of course we were going to go to check it out! When we got there it was a little awkward at first, as hardly anyone was really dancing and most people were just kickin it on the sides of the big dance floor. But as the night progressed a bit, more people started to dance-and dance well-and we realized that there were dancing 'competitions' going on. Oh man, their feet were so light and their hips so smooth, I didn't know the human body could move that way! At one point there were 5 or 6 guys on the dance floor, competing to be the best male salsa-er of the night. And there was a period for a minute or two when they were breaking their groove down, and we were laughing because we felt like female peacocks being summoned by the male peacocks who were shaking their tail-feathers.
Sunday: tarea tarea tarea
Sunday was no day of much excitement, yet rather a day of much homework and trying to get ahead of the game for this week of homework hell. I am afraid that it is also very late, and that I don't have much energy left to say much else.
So now, as Lord Byron said, "On with the dance, let joy be unconfined!" I have less than two weeks left, and of course I am going to get my dance on, you know me!
Besos besos besos!
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