Two months to go

Puebla's colorful streets

At the main square in Puebla, decorations for Mexico's 20' years of Independency

Zócalo of Mexico City

Aztec stone at Templo Mayor

Me and Marta in Bosque de Chapultepec

Ah Dios! Can't believe it that I've got less than 2 months left in Mexico! Time truly flies by! but i'm also starting to miss Portugal and my family and friends more and more...

Since I have not been writing to you guys, I have been busy, busy, busy with exams and presentation. It was worth it to be that busy as I had great results. Now that I finished my mid-terms, I've got some time to enjoy again! I've been to the Templo Mayor and its museum in Mexico City's centre with Spanish class. It are ruins f the Aztecs and all its statues and culture, very interesting and a Mexican pride! I've also been to a few parks in the city, to one of UNAM, Mexico's biggest public uni and to Chapultepec, a huge park in the middle of the city.

Last weekend I went to Puebla, a city about 2 hours from Mexico City. I went by bus with three friends: Marta (Italy), Marianne (NL) and Anni (Austria) and we stayed in a lovely 8euros hotel one block from the main square. It's a really cute city, not too small, but surely more calm than Mexico City! Sometimes I really need to leave Mexico City for a few days. I love living here but sometimes all the noise, pollution and stress is just too much. In Puebla, known for its typical food, we eat, a lot, wandered around its nice and colorful streets, went to a flee market and at night went out to Cholula, its students nieghborhood, which was a lot of fun!

In the almost three months I've been here I've noted several funny or interesting differences with Europe (Portugal and Holland):

-In terms of food, the Mexicans eat a lot: when they wake up they drink some milk and eat a piece of fruit, at about 11/12h they eat "desayuno", which may include eggs, beans, cheese, nachos, etc. Then comes lunch, in between 14 and 16h, they eat a 4 course meal: soup (many times chicken bouillon), rice or pasta (served on a small plate a part), main course (enchiladas, meat, fish, etc with veggies or salad) and a desert. For dinner, the mexicans eat something lighter, like a salad or some quesadillas.

- Public transport is a caos in Mexico City, especially the busses as they do not have fixed bus stops, you can basically get on and off anytime you want. However, the bus I take to uni does have a sort of "paradas", but they are very badly indicated. As there have been quite some problems with women's safety in public transportation, there are now buses for "solo damas" and the first wagons of the metro are also only for the ladies and kids. There is even a project of "ladies only taxis" due to the criminality related with taxis where woman are extra vulnerable.

- What I also found notable is that there are "talleres de autos" everywhere, car garages. They are very small and dirty and do basically everything for any brand, without any specialization. Besides, because labor is so cheap here, car wash machines and drive-throughs do not exist. There are special places where you can let your car be washed or you wash it by yourself, by hand with a bucket. Every morning I pass by parking place, where a man every day is cleaning a few cars, always the same ones, some big Audi's, so they look perfect to their rich owners, I guess!

- In terms of Portuguese pride, I had three moments: first I went crazy when I heard Buraka Som Sistema in a clothes shop; second, I loved it to see a Portuguese wine, Casal Garcia, served in a "Typical" Mexican restaurant; and of course, Cristiano Ronaldo is everywhere, on the TV, on the radio, on publicity in the streets... (but he's not really what I'm proud of eheh). Dutch pride is Dj Tiesto and Armin van Buren who everybody knows (my roomy has got a poster of Tiesto in his room!), the ING bank is very well known here and Gouda cheese is worldwide known, so also in Mexico!

- What I found interesting in the classes at ITAM is that you can get in and out the class whenever you want, to go to the toilet or to buy a coffee (there's a huge "walk coffee" culture here from Starbucks or Seven Eleven, etc.) or even get late or leave earlier. Also, you may eat and drink in classes and when someone sneezes, several persons will say "salut", sometimes even the teacher, interrupting his speech! This also happens in public places. Whenever someone sneezes, even though you don't know that person, say "salut"!

- I love the old school cars here, there are uncountable "vochos", VW beetles, also taxis. But also VW golfs and even VW Caribe and Brasilia, which I had never seen before. I just love them! If i have the chance, I'll definitely buy a "vocho" in Portugal, just to remember the good times in Mexico. Also VW surfer vans are common, in all colors! On the other hand, you also have a lot of Hummers and other huge and shiny jeeps which are said to belong to "narcos", drug dealers.

-Another shocking thing is that on the road signs, there are huge notes saying things like " drive carefully, your family is waiting on you!", I don't know why, but this seems quite weird to me! haha

Well, As you see, everything is ok here in Mexico. Still enjoying and loving every moment. In terms of plans, next weekend is a long weekend, monday and tuesday off due to "Dia de los muertos", the day of the death. To live this tradition, I'm going on a four day excursion to Morelia with uni. We're gonna stay at a ranch with horses, so I'm really looking forward to it. In November, I'm going to Cancun, the famous "malibu beaches" of Mexico with Marta, it's very far away, so we're going by plane. Furthermore I still want to do to San Miguel de Allende where my roomy is from, to Teothuacan, (the aztec pyramids near Mexico City) and to the jungle in Chiapas. I hope I'll have time to do all this in less than 2 months and with a wallet that seems to have a hole in it!

Now I'm going to have dinner with my roomies and the mom of one of them who made typical food from Oaxaca, where she's from, which includes grasshoppers! OMG! Well, I will give it a try because I cannot leave Mexico without having tried this typical gourmet!

Talk to ya guys soon!

Un abrazo de quien vos extraña!

PS. I'm seriously worried about my portuguese, when I speak to friends on Skype, the continuously laugh about my "Portuñol"!!!

Taxco pics

Cuevas de Cacahualmilpa, 40 min from Taxco

"Strangle tree"

Taxco's pink church, Marta and me

Taxco's city center

View from our hotel

Taxco and Mexico City

Hou van jullie, heel erg bedankt dat jullie mij dit avontuur gunnen. Mis jullie! Hzvvj!

Hey everybody, that's ages ago!

I'm sorry, but yes, I was busy with uni, I'm not in Mexico only for holidays! :p

I had an important exam of International Economics, one quiz, one presentation and one essay to give in tomorrow. I’ve just finished the essay so decided to write to you guys what I’ve been up to, besides working for uni.

The last trip I did was to Taxco, as I said before, Mexico’s silver capital. We went with a group of 8 exchange students, 1^st time with no Mexicans!!! We left Friday the 24, we went by bus. The bus ride is a story itself. First the tickets are really cheap, about 8euros for a 3hour drive! To get into the bus, first you receive a drink, water or soda, and then you are checked, your bag and your body and you have to look into a camera. Then, as soon as everybody is in the bus, you are filmed once again, to know where you sit. It’s almost stricter than to get in an airplane! At least it was worth it, the buses are the most comfy I’ve ever seen, with nice big chairs and tv’s. As soon as we arrived at Taxco we went to check-in in the hotel, a beautiful small hotel in the city center, typical Mexican architecture with a private roof terrace, 7 euros per night! Me gusta! The town is super cute, white small houses and tiny streets, all still decorated for the independence celebration. The first day we went to the grottoes, or caves, 40 min away from Taxco, as the taxi driver recommended us. It was, in fact, amazing! A stunning natural park with a river etc., the cave tour took 2 hours, it was a 4km walk (2km in and 2km back). It was impressing with very interesting rock formations. The area were these caves are located is very isolated and people still live of creating livestock, real cowboys on beautiful horses were riding along the street. The next day we went to get some fresh fruit and yogurt to have breakfast on our private sunny terrace and we went to the silver market! It was huge, all kind of jewelry and other things made out of silver were for sale at minimal prices. All girls went crazy and bought a lot of rings, earrings and necklaces! After the market we had some nice typical “Pozole” for lunch and went back to Mexico City.

At night we were invited to a party in a disco, we went with o small group. The music was great! I could not drink because I was on antibiotics, but I danced until 7am! Besides the club was full over too hot to be true Argentinean mega tall models!!!

Sunday I went to Marta’s house to study, we did not study much but as she’s Italian, she made a delicious calabash, tomato pasta with fresh tuna filet and soya sause! Mmmm The healthiest food I’ve eaten so far in Mexico!

Then I had a quite hard week because I had a little flu but had a lot to do for uni. The group presentation went very well; we had a 9/10! J

On Thursday it was my roomies bday and me and my other roomy, Iván, made him a vodka gelatin, thought it ended up to be way too strong and we still did not finish it! Saturday I went with Karen and two Mexicans to the Frida Kahlo museum, it’s really cool, because it is actually the house she and Diego Rivera lived in, and the same as the one in the film! I really like her art and we had a nice day in Coyoacán, we also did a little tour around this part of the city. We passed by the house where Trotsky was hidden and later killed, the Diego Museum and other places of interest. For lunch we met Linda, the Italian girl I met in the airplane, but did not meet in Mexico City until then. So, that was very nice, we went to a typical Mexican Saturday restaurant, were the specialty is “Barbacoa”, oven baked lam rack, delicious, served in between banana leaves. Sunday was study day, once again at Marta’s. We did indeed study a lot (I think I never studied so much in one day!) for the next morning’s exam. This time Marta made a lovely tuna potato salad, what a healthy girl!

This week I finally went to salsa class again (I used to be a little ill on past Tuesdays, so did not go), I was a little behind with some new paces, but I’m not doing too bad. I just love it!

Basically, after 2 months, I’m still loving and enjoying Mexico. Though, so now and then I just feel like I wanna cry because I miss u guys… As now, when I’m writing this… :’)

I am at the uni at the moment so don’t have any pics with me. I’ll post some another day. I only got one pic on my usb, which I will post.

Miss you, speak to you soon.

Love,