Week 4
Oct. 15, 2006 - Oct 22, 2006
Hola Mis Amigas!!

I just returned from Mexico City. Had a really nice time. Saw lots. So much stuff it is crazy. My host family drove Claudia (other student in my school) and I over to Mex. City with them. The family took us directly to the hotel. Which was very nice, and we got a great rate at the hotel, the rate was $50 a night, so we split it. Juan Pablo, who works at school, got us some sort of deal, which was very nice as the hotel was normally very expensive!

I took lots of photos until my batteries died. I bought some new batteries from a street vendor. Unfortunately, they didn’t last long. I would post photos but my Internet connection is just to weak.

Our hotel was next to the Zocolo, or Constitution Square, middle of the historical dist. Wow, it is a really happening place. Concerts, street musicians, vendors etc. Stuff happening all day long and most of the night. Zocolo is basically the name of the major square of the district. Most every city/town here has a town square, all called Zocolo.

We took a bus tour of the city, on Sunday. There are some very lovely neighborhoods, artsy ones, and trendy ones. MC has it all. We went down one road that was the Rodeo Drive. All the expensive, exclusive shopping you could want if you’re into designer’s fashion. So many statues, monuments comminerating just about anything you can think of. There is a statue of George Washington, can't remember why but it was there!

I have shopped very little if at all for souvenirs. My house has to many souvenirs as it is, however, I did get a music cd in MC. This guy came into the restaurant I was at for lunch, he was playing an instrument very similar to a didgeridoo. You know that long horn thing from Australia. Anyways, this instrument is from the Mayan culture, and so it is native instrument from Mexico. Anyway, it was pretty cool music. On Sat. night I heard a street band, all Mexican rocking out w/ African drums. I have all the same instruments at home as they had!! Except we don’t know how to use them! They even had a couple girls doing African dances. It was cool to hear our drums in action!

Mex. City also has tons of museums. We visited the Museum of Anthropology, a huge incredible collection of artifacts from all the various cultures that have lived here over the centuries. The museum is huge, we only saw part of it, and that took 3 hours. Next time I will see more!!

Mexico is very proud of it ancient indigenous cultures especially the Aztec. Aztec is the general name of ancient culture, but the people were called, mexicas (may-hi-kahs). There are monuments to famous Aztecan leaders, words from the Aztecan language are everywhere. I can't say any of them either!

We only saw a small portion of this giant city, more to see next time.

As I finish up this 4th week and head into my 5th week. I am now starting to miss the familiar. Especially food. Everything I eat here has a name I know, but the food does not taste familiar at all. Drives me crazy at times. While in Mex. City, at a restaurant, I ordered "fillet mingnon" (sp?) thinking I would get a juicy steak...nope...I got an over cooked, chopped up beef, in some sort of gravy. I find it hard to believe that there was a steak in the gravy. I was so disappointed!! So I have told myself just deal with it. It is a foreign country after all. It will not be the same, no matter what, so learn to like it!! In fact, I spoke with a young man about it, and he felt the same way when he studied in the US. He said, US tacos just aren't as good as here, I had to laugh!! It is all in what we are used to.

School is going pretty well, but getting much harder. I am starting to study the little components of the language that make a sentence make sense. It is all so different than English. The students there that speak french, pick this stuff up so much faster than I. Mostly because the french language is structured exactly the same way. French conjugates verbs the same way, uses pronouns that same, and more. English conjugates so differently, english sentences are formed differently, there are just so many differences. I wonder if I will ever get it all straight in my head. Even though, at times, I just feel like a flop, I keep going...on and on...Never say NO!!

Forgive my spelling, my English and my Spanish somehow are merging. My teacher told me that is a phase of learning a 2nd language! First separate, then mixed, then separate, so I guess I am in phase 2!!!

more next week!

Hasta manana