A 7 Hour Siesta

No, no. Not 7 hour fiesta, but siesta. Yes, a 7 hour nap that I decided to take today. And now I am studying for our midterms tomorrow and cannot sleep so I have decided to post.

Last weekend our group traveled back to Mexico City for the weekend. We got to travel to and experience so much of Mexico that despite it being a hard personal week/weekend (I am just really missing everyone back in the states), it was truly an amazing trip. Honestly I wake up everyday feeling like the luckiest girl in the world for my wonderful life, but experiences like Mexico City just make me even more thankful for my life and all I am getting to do with it!

After a very chill Thursday evening of just sleeping, packing, and eating, we all met up at the Alameda Hildalgo, a major park in Queretaro, to load onto the buses. The bus ride included Juno in Spanish which was very entertaining, and our first stop was about an hour outside of Mexico City at Teotihuacan.

Teotihuacan is an ancient city of Mexico with almost all of its pyramids and buildings still standing. We started off at a museum explaining the history of the people that lived there and what has happened over the years and it was extremely interesting. I want to research and learn more about the place. We continued to climb the highest pyramids, and explore around. The entire time there we locals following us around trying to get us to buy their stuff. This isn't uncommon for Mexico at all, but these were quite possibly the most demanding vendors I have seen thus far. And some of them sold the strangest things. Like rock shaped penises? And whistles that sounded like jaugars? Very odd.

Dah! I want to be adding in pictures right now, but my internet connection like isn't strong enough to let me do so? Laame, I'll post pictures when I can.

Anyways after tiring ourselves out at the ruins, we headed into the "town" for some comida. I had my first enchiladas in Mexico/best ones of my life. Side note: I am beginning to handle my spice a little better, and even perfer a little hotter salsa with my food sometimes now!

Once we were full of delicious food, we continued on our way to Mexico City. I really love that City, it is so interesting and unique to any other city I have seen. Granted it is the second biggest city in the world (Toyoko has recently pulled ahead), so I expect it to be unlike any other place I have seen, it still is just mesmorizing.

We pulled up to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, a beautifully constructed building complete with gargoyles and statues. Inside the Palacio are housed some of the most renowned murals from/of Mexico. There were also a couple of other galeries of various Mexican artists. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside unfortunately.

After learning even more about Mexico through the murals, we checked into Hotel Canada. We ended up staying very close to where Lee Anne, McKenna, Rebecca, and I stayed our first night in Mexico City. Our night was fun, we ate out across the street and hung out with everyone in the hotel after walking around a bit. Can I just say what are the odds, but we ended up seeing the same people we had met weeks ago in the city not only Friday night, but Saturday night too. They are crazy men with dreadlocks. Anyways.

Saturday morning we had a bomb breakfast overlooking the city, then we headed to some ruins in the historic district of the city. I have to find out the name still. It was a spontanious trip and therefore not on our itinerary. From there we went to the world renound Museum of Anthropolgy. AMAZING. I am still rather confused about some things that I saw/learned about, and will have to look into some things more, but essentially this museum houses everything that ever existed in Central/South America. Including Lucy. . . I think. More on that later once I figure it out.

We spent hours there and it was not enough time, however we were all starving by the end and just wanted to eat. We ate in a really nice park that is basically set up like a carnival everyday in Mexico. Ate some medicore food, but had a lot to look at, experience, and take pictures of :)

We then preceded to walk to the National History Museum of Chapultepec . . . aka A CASTLE!! The nicest castle in all of Mexico, and for all I know the world. Walking around the marble black and white checkered floors with a view of all of Mexico City from whatever window you looked from, completely decorated with all of the furniture and belongings from when Maximillian lived there himself gave a whole new meaning to Taylor Swift's - "Love Story". Needless to say I have decided that I am going to marry royalty because I was meant to live in a castle and be a princess. I'll even wear a corset if necessary. We did not spend nearly enough time exploring the castle/museum, and if we do get to go back to Mexico City for any lenght of time, hands down I am going back.

After that we went back to Hotel Canada and had a fun night...ya ya ya.

Then, Sunday morning we started our day at the Palacio Nacional. It is basically the White House of Mexico. Complete with all of their documents of independence and other things relevant to their independence and government. It was extremely interesting and I still can not believe I saw all that I did there. I haven't even been to my countries capital!

After that I think we saw more ruins...if my memory serves me right. It was a quick trip though. Then we headed to Coyoacan, a small town outside Mexico City where Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's house now turned into museum is. I was interested in both of their work before this, but actually seeing where/how/ and why they lived the way they did has inspired me to learn much more about them. Their house is one of the most interesting and tranquil places I have ever been too, and Coyoacan is a large community, but it has a quiant artisan area that was fun to explore afterwards.

After one more ruin . . . which was spontaneous again so I need to figure out the name, we finally arrived back to Queretaro. It was such an amazing weekend, and getting through classes this week has been hard. It is crazy that our midterms are tomorrow! I am halfway done with classes! My Spanish is tremendously better, and next week I am going to a meeting regarding volunteer stuff, so hopefully I will get all of that figured out.

And by the way this whole time I have been in Mexico, state election stuff has been going on. It's pretty much the equivalent of Obama vs. McCain status. We are definitely here during a unique time, and I am so happy I am getting to experience and learn all about their politics. Elections are Sunday, and after that I feel like a lot will change depending on whomever wins. My senora has been helping with one of the main candidates, and she said that if he wins she might get a job with the government. That would be amazing!

Ah okay enough . . . I should really catch a few more hours of sleep :)