the adventure continues

Ok so I have a ton to update about. I will try to hit up the high points.

Last week was my first full week of school, which is really only four days, and Thursdays are shortened. Sweet. I am now basically two thirds of the way done with my religion class, which feels pretty good. And I currently have around a 98% haha. The "crazy Nazi german woman", haha Chris, is actually pretty amazing. She's just like a feisty grandma. German grandma. German being the key word. She loves the Germanic peoples, yes she does. But the class is actually interesting and includes philosophy to discuss the existence of God and proofs for the existence of God. Right now we are on atheism. Today there was an argument presented where a philosopher looked at believing in God like gambling: if you do believe in God, and there is an afterlife, then you win! If you do believe in God, and there isn't an afterlife, then you lose nothing. Interesting, but not quite the way I would like to look at my choice of religion. My other class is a class on the three main Mexican muralists who painted during the Mexican revolution. I love art so I am loving it. My teacher is a renowned Mexican archaeological scholar from Guadalajara. He teaches at Cal State Los Angeles and has written 25 books and is on the history channel all the time. He is a baller. I've gone on a bunch of tours with him now and he always calls our group the Jaguars, then holds up his hand like a claw and growls. Yeah.

So enough about school. On Tuesday we went to this fun club/bar called Wall Street and had a great time. It is very easy to make new friends here. We just dance all night, come home, and wake up for school three hours later. Haha that is the life. It is a pretty grueling schedule though. We take a LOT of siestas, anywhere we can, anytime we can. On the bus there and back home. As soon as we get home. We strip into pajamas and go right to sleep. Then wake up and eat. And repeat! Ahhhhhhh.

So on Thursday we left for Mexico City. The bus ride was 8 hours long and I slept/tried to sleep for most of it. We finally got into the city at night time. It is the second biggest city in the world with 27 million people! I can't even comprehend that. Five minutes from the hotel something kinda scary happened. The bus stopped at a light and a whole bunch of young boys came out of this store and descended on our bus. They all started reaching in their pockets as if reaching for guns. Then they started throwing rocks and bottles at all of our windows and yelling at us. I just ducked down because if a bottle was going to come through the window I didn't want it hitting me in the face. But we drove away and got safely to our hotel. Another scary thing happened to girls in our Guad group as well. They were coming home from a night clubbing in Guad, in a taxi, and two cars came up on them on either side and chased them with guns for 45 minutes. The girls were really really shaken up, which is totally understandable. One might be leaving soon. But those kind of things can happen anywhere.

Anyways back to Mexico City. So right before we left I found out they had me signed up to room with a boy named Justin. HAHA. So I was like SWEET! No I'm kidding I had them change it right away. So we get to the hotel and it is GORGEOUS. One of the nicest I've ever seen. It's a five star. I got to my room to find a note from my GIRL roommate named Lee saying she was already out with her friends. Cool. But rather than seeing her later that night... she never came. The entire weekend. So I had my own room! Which I didn't mind at all. Perfectly fine with me.  

So we did a ton of traveling and walking in Mexico DF, but the high points were definitely the pyramids and the Basilica de Guadalupe.  The pyramids were very impressive and it was amazing to learn about Aztec culture. We climbed both the sun and moon pyramids and walked about 8 miles that day. I think the next day we went to the Basilica de Guadalupe which was beautiful as well. The church was built after a sighting of the Virgin Mary. The story goes that her image was miraculously painted onto a coat, and the coat still hangs in the basilica today. The buildings were beautiful. All the while though the underlying theme was hegemony. The Aztec and Mayan and other indigenous cultures were forced to accept the views of various cultures that came to conquer them, including the Spanish, French and Americans.  There was a very interesting sculpture in the gardens of the basilica that showed a lot of Aztec peoples worshipping the Virgin Mary.  Apparently over time the two important female figures, the Mother Goddess of Aztec religion and the Virgin Mary, have mended into one.  But I couldn't help but think that if I was an Aztec I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to be depicted as such. Religion is very interesting. Hegemony is everywhere. 

We also visited the archaeological museum, which my art teacher explained everything about, and a small town to see Frida Kahlo's house, though I was so exhausted that day that I didn't go in. It was a grueling schedule all weekend. We all went out Friday night so of course I got like three hours of sleep. And the other nights of course we stayed up late too. But no matter what, every single morning I was awake by 7:30 at the latest to catch breakfast and the bus. But all in all I am glad that I went, especially since it was a hard decision for me. I was very awake on Sunday however and got to see the beautiful countryside on the ride back. There are some very beautiful sights here in Mexico.

Since then it's been  back to the grind. I have kind of a hard time sleeping here. I can't seem to fall asleep early, and remember we wake up at 6:30 am every day. Oh well, I am managing. Went out to Wall Street again last night and Jaclyn lost her camera. It was my other roommate's 21st birthday and, of course, she got really sick. She has a little poisoning today, no bueno. 

Today was a GREAT day because I didn't have my first class so I slept in!!! AMAZING!!! Then I went to my second class then on a field trip with my art class. It was an hour ride there but it was so worth it. We saw circular pyramids of another ancient people then walked a couple of miles through the agave plants that are used to make tequila. We ended up in this really cute small town and had authentic nieve, or ice cream. SOOOO GOOD!!! I miss otter pops so much haha. The trip was probably one of the things I have enjoyed most so far.

Tomorrow we are off to Puerto Vallarta! It is going to be ridiculous, I already know, but a very good time. I am loving speaking Spanish here so much, it is amazing how much I have improved in so little time. It is inspiring me to pick it up as my minor again. I don't know, but all I know is one day I really hope to be fluent in Spanish. It will take work, but I can do it. This really makes me want to intern in El Salvador for a summer. I love the language and I am really improving. My family is so nice and they are really fun and interesting to talk to. I am finally really comfortable here, actually. It's home, for now.

Wish me luck in Puerto!!!