Ok, according to my sister my “loyal fans” are getting restless so I won’t keep them waiting any longer! It’s hard to believe I am nearing the end of my stay in Cuernavaca. Three weeks have gone by extremely fast and I’m sure this week will as well. I’ve been spending lots of time in class and lots of time having fun! Last week, on Wednesday my friend Julie (an ultimate player) and I took a bus to Mexico City after classes. We decided that we wanted to see the Ballet Foklorico, which is a dance troupe that performs traditional Mexican dances from around the country. The bus cost about $8 dollars and was really nice. They offer free refreshments and show a movie. Can you imagine being the person offering refreshments on a bus? The woman was dressed nicely in a suit and heels – similar to a flight attendant. Somehow she managed to walk up and down the row of this bus that was traveling at relatively high speeds over a mountainous highway. Tough job! The movie they showed was Akeelah and the Bee, very entertaining to watch the voice-overs in Spanish! The only problem is that the bus ride to Mexico City only takes about an hour, so we didn’t get to see the end of the movie! When we arrived in Mexico City, our friend Rodrigo picked us up at the bus station. Traffic in Mexico City is INSANE. I have NEVER EVER EVER seen people drive the way they do in Mexico City. It seems that every law that I know of for driving is optional in Mexico. Lanes are optional, red lights are optional, stop signs are optional, etc. I guess it’s similar to NYC, but it’s much much worse or I guess better depending on how you look at it! In addition to wild driving, traffic is extremely heavy. When Rodrigo picked us up we were going to go to his house first to change for the ballet, but because of traffic we ended up just turning around and going straight to the show. The show was great between the dancing, the music, and the costumes, it was really fun. I was surprised by how few people were in the theatre. It was pretty much all foreigners; there were very few locals at the show.
The next day we planned to return to Cuernavaca early, but when we woke up we found out that the teachers in Cuernavaca were blocking all of the highways in to the city. The huelga (strike) is STILL going on. So instead of returning to Cuernavaca early, our friend took us on a tour of UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico). UNAM is the best and biggest university in Mexico. There are somewhere between 150,000 and 250,000 students there. It was difficult for me to find a reliable number, but the point is that the university is HUGE. We spent sometime driving and walking around the university and I took some pictures of the library, which I’ll attach. We finally got back to Cuernavaca by using a rural road that is less traveled.
I’ll spare you all of the details of every single outing, but I do think I’ll mention a little about the drinking habits here in Cuernavaca! It’s really interesting how people drink their beer here. It’s common when you go out for beer to be served with salt and lime. And there are several drinks involving beer that include the use of chili in the beer or a mix of chili and salt to rim a beer. I can’t think of too many other fun things right now. I did go shopping for music yesterday with my friend memo and had him help me pick out some good Mexican music. I also bought a small set of speakers and a discman. My apartment in Puebla is SO quiet and I’ve been wanting to get some noise for when I go back there! I’m so used to always having the radio, computer, or tv on that I could barely handle the silence! Next weekend, I will be moving back to Puebla. I think that my friends and I will be going to see a pro soccer game in Mexico City on Sunday and then I’ll travel from there.
Thanks to you all for keeping up with me, I enjoy seeing the comments. Also, please let me know if you have ideas about what might be interesting to hear about. I think that I’m already taking some of the unique aspects of Mexico for granted after a month! Ok, hope everyone is well!
