On Friday we all headed out to Mexico City, starting with an afternoon in Teotihuacan to climb the pyramids. It was interesting to learn about the ancient cultural practices of the area, although the thought of the many human sacrifices made there through the years was disturbing.

The building ruins were quite interesting to me as well. You normally see pictures and hear about the pyramids and the sacrifices, but rarely about the surrounding buildings and the people who actually once lived there. I didn’t understand everything that our guide told us, but of other ancient civilizations where those of high status lived closest to the cultural centers- places of religious or governmental importance.

I decided that these stone steps were bleachers, as they have the right configuration. Seeing as how they are facing another temple, I think they might have been for the powerful people of the day to sit and watch the sacrifices, but I don’t know for sure.

An interesting thing about modern Teotihuacan is the over-abundance of vendors. There are people everywhere shoving their merchandise in your face and offering low prices. Further from the pyramids there are established stalls offering the same goods (mostly) for higher prices, and areas with swarms of waiters pushing menus in you face. The sellers are for the most part indigenous people but unlike the street vendors in Querétaro, they were not dressed in traditional clothing.

The next day in Mexico City we took a walking tour of town, starting with the Metropolitan Cathedral which is as large and ornate as any in Europe, but a different style. It was constructed over a period of many years and contains many chapels dedicated to different saints as well as two beautiful pipe organs. It is still in active use, and there were in fact two different services in progress while we were visiting (Sat morning about 10am)

This was very interesting, a representation of the original island Tenochtitlán made as a monument next to the cathedral.

A representation of the original piece, done in the original coloring. This carving was in the original Templo Mayor, and tells a (fairly gruesome) legend from the Aztec beliefs. The stone depicts the moon goddess Coyolxauhqu who led an attack by her siblings against her mother, the earth goddess Coatlicue for becoming pregnant by a hummingbird. The child sprang out as a fully grown warrior to protect his mother and dismembered Coyolxauhqu, placing her head in the sky as a comfort to her mother. It is thought that after their hearts were remover, human sacrifices were thrown down the steps (to where the disk was placed) and dismembered as Coyolxauhqu was, and their heads separated to the skull rack representing her head.

A wall of skulls covered over in plaster from the original Templo Mayor, now at the nearby museum.

Like the nearby cathedral, the Templo Mayor was built is stages, but it is far older and was the central sacred place of Aztec Tenochtitlán. The first temple was built around 1325, and the seventh and last before Hernán Cortéz arrived in 1519. Thousands of human sacrifices were made here over the years and many ancient offerings have been found.

The Palacio des Bellas Artes is an important part of the historic center of Mexico City. The museum is built in a style reminiscent of the French, castles complete with miniature gardens and abundant marble and statues. It contains the National Theater, and murals by famous Mexican artists such as Diego Riviera and David Alfaro Siqueiros.

Our last stop on Saturday was to visit the Frida Kahlo Museum. I have learned a lot about Frida Kahlo in various art and Spanish classes, so it was really interesting to see her house and her art. Some of her art verged on disturbing, but there was a lost of interesting history in her house, and some traditional art that she had collected as well. One thing that I found fascinating was an article framed on the wall talking about Mexican high society and comparing it to that of England and East Coast America, with “drawing room teas” and the like. Her clothing was neat to see as well, and I loved the blend of tradition and fashion that she exhibited.

On Sunday we went to the Chapultepec castle, and then the National Anthropological Museum. They were both fascinating and full of history, but we were all a bit tired by then.

In my ESOL class we visited an English class again, and interviewed them about their education in Mexico, especially their experiences with learning English. It was really very interesting. It was quite obvious from listening to them that there is a big difference between the quality of public and private education in Mexico. In the US, private schools often offer a more specialized type of education or are religiously oriented, but in Mexico they offer a much higher quality education. A Mexican public school might have 50 students in one class with one teacher, where a private school would have 20 students and offer English classes from elementary. According to the students (and logic) it is very very difficult to learn much in a Mexican public school because there are simply too many students for the teachers to provide any sort of one-on-one guidance or tailoring. I would really like to teach in another country some day, but I don’t think I could deal with having 50 students at one time. Even the thought of it is overwhelming.

Ah, I can’t believe how fast this trip has gone, I don’t want to go home at all 🙁 Alright, now I suppose I ought to catch the online blog up with my journal.

So the first week three other students from WOU and I came down to Querétaro a bit early with Carmen Cascaeda, our amazing advisor. The first thing I noticed after getting off the plane was that the airport was not air conditioned at all. It was warm, a bit muggy, and definitely crowded. I also noticed that a lot of the advertisements were in English, or had English on them, and though there were signs, I don’t think I could have found my way to the proper spot without Carmen leading. The bus ride to Querétaro was only eventful in that there was a lot of traffic and the driver decided to take an alternate route which added and extra two hours to our trip and landed us in Querétaro around 1am. A bit late for already tired travelers. Actually, I can’t complain much because I slept for pretty much the entire trip. One thing that shocked me with the taxis and later with almost every vehicle I have been in- they don’t use seat belts here! Some cars have them (in working condition), but few people ever use them and that’s usually just the driver.

We eventually made it safely to our hotel- Hotel Señorial, which was a beautiful old-fashioned hotel in the heart of el Centro Historico.

The first morning we walked to a little near-by restaurant for breakfast and had our first taste of authentic Mexican cuisine. The orange juice was fresh squeezed, the coffee (café de olla) was the only coffee I’ve ever liked, and the food was delicious. I did notice though that the eggs had a lot of oil, enough to drip out when I put some in a tortilla.

After breakfast we walked to an indoor market that sold just about everything. It was really fun to look but we only bought a little bit of sweet bread (delicious).

After the market we went on a pilgrimage to find sunscreen, and just generally explored el Centro. Two notable occurrences would have to be talking to the guy at the Bernal sweets shop, and taking a tour of an elementary school. The shop owner told us stories about La Peña de Bernal and showed us the animals in the rock face which was really cool, and then gave us goat milk sweets which were like extra delicious caramels. The school was really neat- one of the oldest in Querétaro. The students weren’t there because it was the afternoon break time, but we got to peek into the classrooms and meet some of the teachers.

One of the teachers gave us her number, and we decided to get together later to go dancing. We also walked all the way to the other end of town to go to a viewing point form which we could look out over the city and see the arches. It was neat but it was really quite a walk.

We went back to the hotel to lay down for awhile, because we were meeting our teacher friend at 10pm and going to the Plaza de Armas (one of many plazas in Querétaro). The plazas at night were/are awesome.  There are lights and music and people everywhere. There are vendors and performers and children playing with flying light-up toys that I coveted too. We met some friends of our teacher friend, and then walked to the antro (dance club) from there. The first one we tried (La Mulata) wouldn’t let us in because Josh was wearing flip-flops and it was the sort of place where you needed to dress up. In the end we drove to a different antro called Club Latino where we got our first introduction to Cumbia. I honestly think it was one of the most fun nights of my life. I danced for hours and I may not have been very good but I definitely enjoyed myself. We didn’t get back to the hotel until 2am but it was worth every second.

Day two started with another delicious breakfast, this time a croissant sandwich for me and molletes (beans and cheese on bread; delicious) for Josh and Courtney.

After breakfast we went on a tour of the city on the trolley, and it was fun even though I only understood a fraction of what the tour guide said.

We even went and visited the place where Maximilian was executed by firing squad… yay?

We ate lunch at a place that we were pretty sure converted into a bar at night, and I had my first taste of mole which I hated (only food I’ve disliked so far, actually).

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city some more and catching up on sleep.

Day three had a calm start to it. I went to church with Quo friends and then met back up with the group in time to be dispatched to my host family.

My host family welcomed me warmly and I love everything about living here, well, except Leonin the dog. He is sweet most of the time but the first morning that I went into the kitchen to get some water before school he barked his head off and completely terrified me. Anyway, the house here is fairly similar to houses in the US, but it is in a very small gated community with other similar houses, it is more colorful, and it tends towards tile and painted metal.

The location is perfect because I’m in el Centro and only about a 15 minute walk from the school in the mornings. After I got settled in a little bit, my host mom and her daughter took me with them on their errands including two bookstores and Costco- I even got Costco frozen yoghurt!

Monday was the first day of classes… the beginning of the end if I’m allowed to be melodramatic about it.

My first two classes are spanish language in context (Lengua en contexto) which is mainly about the social, political, and cultural context of Mexico, and composition which is mainly grammar review and writing. The first teacher, Alejandro, was a bit intimidating because he put us on the spot and expected us to answer, which is not something I’d dealt with before in spanish. The second teacher Nadia is young and very sweet, but also has an excellent way of explaining concepts so that they make sense. she also writes words on the board if we don’t know them, which I really appreciate because then I know how to spell them, and it also makes them easier to remember. After classes we went to a restaurant and had a buffet lunch with all of the students and their host moms from session 2. The restaurant’s name was Las Monjas and their tortilla soup was fabulous. That night I went with a group of students from sessions 1&2 to college bar, which was a lot of fun.

Tuesday was my first day with ESOL class at La escuela de Gabi and it was very different that what I was expecting. All my classes here are small, but it’s one thing to have a new class be very different, and another to have a normal ESOL class be in a tiny little bare-bones classroom with three other students. The only equipment there in the room is a whiteboard and some desks. It is very different but it’s kind of fun that way.

Wednesday was Laurie (our resident director)’s birthday and so we had tres leches cake at la escuela de Gabi after classes. It was my first time trying that type of cake, and I’m a convert :).

Some observations from my first week in Querétaro: I was right about the cobble-stones, don’t ask me how I knew. I love the cobble stone streets and sidewalks. I have no clue how girls navigate them in heels, but they do. People dress up a lot more here, especially at night. I’m pretty sure girls are obsessed with their footwear because they all wear fancy shoes and at night they all wear deadly looking heels. I don’t think I would last five minutes in their shoes on these streets, but then again they all seem to have a guy to cling to. That’s another thing, couples are *very* open with affection here. It is a common occurrence for there to be couples making-out randomly anywhere any time of day, and no one bats an eyelid. It has been hard enough for me to adjust to the whole air kissing people’s cheek in greeting thing, but the rampant PDA kind of shocked me. Also, society here seems a bit more paternalistic than the US, and they definitely treat men and women differently. For one thing, in many bars and antros men have to pay a cover charge and possibly get patted down, but women do not. Men do many of the traditional gentlemanly things too, like opening doors, pulling out chairs, acting protective etc that aren’t very common in the US (wish they were). There is also a lot more smoking here for both men and women.