Sunday fun-day

Last night we headed to hear a Soul band play—it was really cool to see how this group of Mexicans has appropriated soul (music, style, dance) and made it their own.

Today, after some leisurely internet time, and a lunch of delicious lamb tacos, we headed back to the Bosque of Chapultepec, to the Museum of Anthropology and later the Museum of Modern Art. Both were free because it was a Sunday—we love free stuff! They weren’t kidding about the anthropology museum—it is HUGE. And beautiful. And fact-filled. My friend Victoria’s and my favorite part was outside of the section on the Maya, it was as if we were walking through a jungle and happened upon some ruins. We only really saw a few sections before the museum closed, so we went outside back to where some of the vendors were, got some mango with chile powder on it and some banana chips, and headed over to the other museum.

I think tonight (finally!) will be a chill night—we all need to catch up on our rest, especially here at the high altitude, after the crazy week we’ve had. I think we might watch Center Stage or something of the like.

Our project for tomorrow is cell phones- we’ll see how that goes. We’ll all be in different places, and the area codes are all different, so we’ll see if they can give us the codes we need even if we buy the phones here in the capital.

Hasta luego—Besitos!

Anti-violence march

So many things, so few days...

Orientation was super busy, much of it was fun and interesting, but the best part was getting to meet the other Fulbrighters/ networking, and our nights out! We've scaled the pyramids at Teotihuacán, we had a dinner with a Mexican Fulbrighter (probably going to Chicago soon!), a reception at the Deputy Chief of Missions' house, and some live music in a pub-- and I looove live music! ;)

Yesterday, the other 3 English teachers and I got to our hostel, to be home for the next few days, and went to the Lucha Libre last night-- it was NUTS. Choreographed, yes, but so fun to watch people get sooo excited about it!

Today we went to the Bosque (woods) de Chapultepec, to the Zoo, and we were going to go to the Museum of Modern Art but it started to pour, so we were stuck under a sculpture for a while before being able to continue on to the Anti-violence march... you may have read about it in the BBC-- basically there have been a HUGE number of kidnappings and violent crimes in the past few years, and for this march (they expected about 500.000 people) we all wore white in solidarity with the victims and families of the violence. Check it out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7590272.stm

I think we've been invited to some live music for the evening, so i will sign off-- besos!

I've arrived!!

Hioo!

I'm safely and happily in Mexico City! Our plane was delayed for a bit, but on the ground in MX i ran into several other fulbrights, and have been happily making friends with them and others ever since.

Our hotel is beautiful, we've already been to eat some tacos (yay!) and it's good to know that it's finally real (and I wasn't the only one who thought it was pretend :))

Orientation is tomorrow and Thursday, it promises to be a whirlwind, but i'm pumped.

Thanks for all of your support, everyone, and I hope to be hearing from you soon!!!

Got my visa!

It's official! I can actually go :)

Some pics from the party yesterday...

T minus 26 hours!

I'm really excited to begin this adventure, and to share it with you via this blog!

I leave for Mexico City tomorrow, Tuesday August 26th, in the morning. Tomorrow evening begins our orientation for the 40ish Fulbrighters to Mexico. The other English Teaching Assistants and I will probably be among the youngest of the group, which should be interesting. :)

Many thanks to those of you who were able to make it to my party on Sunday night-- it was such a blast! So fun to have each of you there and be able to say "Hasta luego" for a while.

I'll sign off for now, lots of last-minute things to do, but hopefully I'll be able to update this blog every now and again.

Besos!