Settling In

I have finished my first week of school and am settling into a nice routine that includes waking up at eight, chatting with Silvia (and beginning to actually understand a lot of what she says), riding the buses to school, sardine style, and having four hours of Spanish. Next week my class of seven is reduced to three. I think each week will be different as people come and go.

After school, I have some site to visit, an adventure to do or I just wander around until I find something interesting. Here is what I have been up to the past few days:

I stumbled across part of a huge peace march. Millions of Mexicans joined together for a march across the city, meeting in one of several famous sites in the city. Everyone was dressed in white and was carrying white balloons and flowers, candles, peace flags and Mexican flags. They are objecting to all of the violence that is happening in the city. I was in a cab earlier in the day and the driver pointed out a few of the walkers getting assembled. He said they are marching for peace, and I asked "world peace?", and he said no, that they needed to start with peace in the city. I found part of the march back at the Zocolo, the part of the city where I saw the flag being lowered because I wanted to return to the book store. The square was already crowded, but people were pouring in from all around to join in. There was energetic chanting, balloons and bubbles in the air, TV cameras and helicopters and lots of cameras recording the whole event. The energy was great; buzzing and hopeful.

Saturday I hopped on the Touribus, Mexico's version of the red double-decker tour buses in London. I was trying to find information about where to find the ticket on the company website, but it was all in Spanish. My (old) tour book promised a information station near my school, so I went there in search of info. Turns out that the tourist spot is now a police something, and some men, possibly criminals, told me to go next door. Next door was a lawyer, also not a tourist site, but he was able to direct me correctly to a tourist kiosk. I got my info, and found a spot where I can hop on the bus. There are two routes; you buy a ticket on the actual bus and you get a wrist band so you can hop on and off as you see fit about the city. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I was loving seeing the city from so high up. I was educated about the history of many of the cites and listened to the Mexican elevator music in between. Other than some sun burnt shoulders, it was a very lovely day.

Wednesday I was feeling pretty homesick, sick to my stomach, had a headache and was generally overwhelmed. I missed home, had no emails other than spam in my email and was overall feeling pitiful. I wasn't at my best with communicating with Silvia and I was getting frustrated because I didn't feel well. I think that the most overwhelming thing so far is the noise. Everything is soooooo loud here; the buses, the cars honking, people yelling to sell their wares, the people selling CDs that have boom boxes with them to sample the play list, the dogs barking, the construction next door, yikes! I didn't know how much I valued quiet times in the day until I had none. Having said that, I have since felt much better and have found several parks to sooth myself from the noise of the city. It is to be expected to be overwhelmed when doing something new, and I'm not trying to complain. I just want to record the true experience.

Today I went to Chapultepc, Mexico City's Central park and saw the castle, now home to a History museum. The walk up to the castle is a winding, paved avenue that slowly rises through the trees up to the highest part of the park. The first part of the museum houses many ancient and not-so-ancient artifacts including sculptures, jewelry, clothes, carriages, tools, paintings, etc. Interesting and beautiful, but I can only take in so much, especially when all of the descriptions are in Spanish. The rest of the castle is set up with furniture as the people of the castle would have had. You can't actually go into the rooms, but you get to peep in the doors and check things out. The views from the castle of the city are amazing. The noise is muffled by all of the trees and it is very peaceful.

I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Revolution street, a famous street in Mexico that has many sculptures along it and statues from every state. The last Sunday of every month the street is blocked for cars and everyone bikes, roller blades, skate boards and runs up this beautiful street. It is really nice to see all the sites at a different pace and to be able to people watch so much. I can’t imagine learning to ride my bike on a street that usually houses eight lanes of honking cars and buses.

Other than that, I have held hands with Antonio Benderas…in the Hollywood style mall that has the handprint and signatures of famous people. Also in the mall there was an opportunity to take pictures with a real lion. Pass! I don’t want to be lunch! One of my first days here, I kept hearing what I thought was music from an ice-cream truck. Finally I heard things just outside the window and went outside to check things out. Turns out it is a traveling band of three guys playing a wooden xylophone that sounds exactly like an American ice-cream truck. They were really happy to see me when I had a few pesos in my hand but not so thrilled to have their picture taken. Tough luck. Lastly, I saw three young boys swimming in one of the fountains in Chapultapec park. It was really cute and I hopped off the Touribus to snap their picture and wander around. There is so much to see here!