I had a delightful time this past weekend. It was pretty much totally free, so I got to see a lot of the city, which was a lot of fun. Kiara, Meredith, Marcos, and I made pancakes Saturday morning, then set out for the day. We went to Chapultapec which has like 5,000 things to do. We went out on a paddle boat, which was actually sweet to be able to do on a lake in the midst of this huge bustling city. We also climbed a small mountain to get to a castle that we got to tour, which was actually quite awesome. The history teacher in me definitely came out, and I am sure I will go back there again sometime to really take it all in. I am hoping to find a good book on Mexican history to read in the meantime … After we left there we went to El Merced which is this HUGE market and I experienced my personal space violated like nothing I have ever experienced before by this very large woman behind me in line for the metro. Anyways, we bought some stuff there and then ate at a little place as well. When we got home we made pizza (enough to feed an army) which was uber delicious.
Sunday we went to church in Nauculpan where one of the workers with MCC works … it is a Mennonite church of about 30 people and I actually really liked it. It was nothing like I experienced church in the DR … it was much more tranquillo and the people there were super nice. I am hoping that I can find a church similar to this to attend for the next year! After church and lunch, Ricardo, Isabel, Marcos, and I went to Coyoacan – which I give lots of thumbs up. It was a big market with lots of earrings, scarves, etc. to buy. They had an ice cream store where I FINALLY found something of passion fruit .. .it was so delicious. I will definitely be returning there.
Sunday evening Marcos said he was going to make us empanadas (he claimed to know how to make them…) it was quite a big adventure that started with us taking the meat out of the refri that we bought at El Merced to find it to be green … the meat is totally sketchy here and I am fairly certain I have been convinced to be a vegetarian after seeing that meat … sick. Anyways, we had loads of fun making empanadas and jugo de limón. It was a DELICIOUS dinner.
I also gave Marcos one of my Schmucker’s shirts. Dad – he says that you should start making empanadas at the restaurant. I told him he’s have to come teach you how J
So the weekend was a lot of fun, but I found myself totally exhausted afterwards. So yesterday and today I’ve been trying to recuperate from that a bit and take it easy. Tuesday Marcos and I went down to the Zócalo to get my guitar fixed (done and done, finally...i now know about 5 chords) but other than that we haven’t really done a whole lot. Today Kiara, Marcos, Ana Julia, and I are going to Chiapas (San Crístobal). There is an MCC Mexico retreat this weekend there and we are all going a few days early just for a bit of vacation, sightseeing, and getting to know the country a bit! So it should be a lot of fun. I will be back here in Mexico city on Monday.
Okay, I suppose that is all for now. I’m sorry Jason, somehow this still is sort of long. I hope all is well wherever you all may be and whatever life has been bringing you lately! Take care!
the boat in its entirity
kiara and i with our liter of agua de limon at El Merced
Arriving at the airport: Marcos and I loaded up with all our stuff and ready to go!
A view of the city from the airplane … it is HUGE. And surrounded by mountains.
It’s actually a really great view from the plane.
llegamos! happy to have arrived.
Anyways, I’ve now been in Mexico for one entire week. Woohoo!
Our first full day here (Sunday) we spent on a turibús. Ricardo and Marion (MCC Reps) and their daughter Isabel (who is 2…and bilingual…awesome) and Marcos and I went. It was one of those open air two story buses that drives you around the city and you listen on your headphones to learn stuff about the city, its history, etc. We got off at a few stops and walked around the zócalo, which is basically the main big square downtown with a cathedral and lots going on, and went to see Bellas Artes which is like an art museum. We spent about 8 hours doing all of this, so it was exhausting, but a really good way to see lots of different parts of the city and learn some of the different neighborhoods and history.
The cathedral in the zocalo
The countdown to Mexico’s bicentennial (sept. 15, 2010) – apparently the celebration on sept. 15 in the zocalo is beyond crazy and anyone who’s not Mexican shouldn’t even consider going …
Lots of decorations in anticipation of this coming sept. 15 (no, it’s not for Christmas … easily confused colors J )
Bellas Artes – a view from the 9th floor of the Sears store
Isabel and I
Most of the week has been about the same every day. We have our mornings free. After lunch we have little “sessions” to learn about MCC Mexico and how things work here. Then in the evenings I usually watch a movie and use the internet for a bit before going to bed. In the mornings we have done a couple of fun things with our free time. Monday we went to a market that is really close to the MCC Office where they seriously let you try any fruit you want. There are some WEIRD fruits here! Like the fruit of cactus (they call it tuna) and something that looks like a sea urchant on the outside and like eyeballs on the inside. Very weird. I also saw passion fruit (they don’t call it chinola here which totally weirds me out – it’s like maracuya or something) but I didn’t buy any and I’m kicking myself for it…Anyway, the market was really awesome and we bought tons of fruits and stuff there (although none of them have really captured my taste buds yet). Thurdsay we went to a big market of like anything you could want: clothes, dvds, cell phones, tvs, food, radios, video games, shoes, etc. etc. etc. It was crazy big. I accidentally bought four dvds … but it’s hard not to when they cost like 65 cents … you all thought I was bad in the states for buying DVDs…it’s gonna be real tough here…
Me and my new movies … don’t judge me for my purchases (if you can tell what they are)
Most of the days during the week Kiara and Marcos and I have made lunch, which has been a lot of fun. (Kiara – currently lives at MCC Office/Guest House). The three of us have a grand time cooking, listening to music in the kitchen, and cleaning up after lunch. We normally begin all this around noon or before, and don’t finish until around 3 or 3:30. And then sometimes I just don’t eat dinner J I love this whole concept of big lunches (la comida is what they call it here … not almuerzo…) and then just eating a tiny bit for dinner. The other night Kiara and I were craving sweets so we made this chocolate peanut butter bar dessert that rocked our lives.
Kiara and I cooking
Later in the week I decided I should get out more and see the city so Thursday Marcos and I went got on the metro and went back to the zócalo just to look around and stuff. We decided to try to find a guitar for me but weren’t sure if we would find any music stores…well we ended up on a street literally FULL of them. It went on forever and every single store on it was full of musical instruments. It was crazy. By the end I was so sick of looking at guitars… but I bought one ! (for a pretty cheap price too, I think). Luckily I had marcos with me because I know NOTHING about guitars, which ones are good, which ones are good deals, etc. so he helped me out a lot. And now I have a guitar! Step one of my goal to learn guitar this year has been achieved, now on to the harder part of actually learning …
My lovely new guitar J
So … Mexico City … it’s huge. It’s actually the second biggest city in the world (after tokyo). It’s been interesting being here because I find myself constantly comparing it to Santo Domingo and expecting to find Helados Bon on every corner. I guess that’s what happens when I’ve only ever “lived” in two huge cities in my life. But it is surprising how much I think of Santo Domingo or things that I miss from there while I’m here. Public transportation is still a bit of a challenge for me. I keep saying they should just throw me out on the street one day and tell me to find my way around because I’m not going to learn it if I don’t! I hardly ever leave the MCC Guest House/Office because we always meet here every day. So I definitely am still a little afraid of transporte público…although I think I’m starting to get the hang of it a little better day by day. I can’t wait for the day I feel confident in it! I’m told I need to learn it really well because I may be coming here frequently … Cuernavaca is only about 1 ¼ hours away from Mexico City. I also learned Cuernavaca has one million people in it…I had no idea it was so huge! Crazy crazy …
Random fact: Walmart is responsible for over 25% of the economy in Mexico. (gross)
So our sessions every day about important stuff … they are always in Spanish … because Ricardo (MCC Rep) and Marcos really only speak Spanish. So it’s been very interesting. The first day we spent over an hour talking about finances and how finances work … now let me tell you I would have been confused if it was all told to me in English! So needless to say I had quite the headache after that session. But actually I have been so incredibly surprised with how much I understand. Depending on who is speaking to me, I can generally understand between eighty and ninety-five percent of what is said. Which I really didn’t expect. So I’m feeling really pretty great about the whole Spanish thing already. Which rocks … and I also feel like I’ve already learned a ton in the week that I’ve been here…
Random story: We were in the park talking about this that or the other thing and I got belted in the head with a soccer ball. those punk kids in the park … ha
Anyways, I hope all is well with you wherever you may be. It’s been sort of weird knowing that school is starting back in the states now … part of me wishes I was there starting school with the rest of you all! But things are really good here and I’m really enjoying myself. I’m excited for this weekend – I think we’re going to go do some fun stuff. Take care. I miss you all dearly!
I am currently sitting in the MCC Guest House in Mexico City. I just arrived here yesterday … the past week I have been in Akron, PA for orientation with all those from SALT/YAMEN!/IVEP. It was an incredible week. At the beginning we all compared it to the first week of your first year of college – it’s kind of awkward because you don’t know anyone, and you just kind of make friends with lots of people because they don’t know anyone either, and you feel like you’re friends but you don’t really actually know them … it’s an interesting sensation. But it turned into awesomeness – I made some great friends with people and the week was phenomenal. Well, it was also very boring at times, full of long days, and exhausting as well. We spent most of our time in sessions learning about MCC, logistics of SALT, living cross-culturally, setting goals, nurturing ourselves spiritually, oppression, self care, etc. etc. etc. Some of the sessions were extremely heavy and I left feeling as if I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. Others were very boring and I had to try to keep myself awake. And others were extremely helpful to be in dialogue with others. It was especially great because we had people from all over the world there for the different programs, so we were given the space to learn from people from so many different cultures. We would often divide up into regions – for instance one day all of us either coming from or going to Central America met (about 10 of us) and discussed/taught each other how things happen where we are from. (those social norms that we just inherently have ingrained into us that people coming to our culture wouldn’t necessarily know). It was a really great experience.
When I first arrived in Akron I found out I would be staying at the Manor House – not actually in the “compound” of the MCC Welcoming Place as I learned to call it. I was a little jealous at first because others in the compound had much nicer facilities (i.e. 2 people per shower instead of 10). But after about one day we all realized The Manor had it going on – it was full of people either coming from or going to Latin America, and we all made great connections and had tons of fun together. No matter how hard I tried I could never get to bed before midnight or 1 (even though we had to get up early) because it was always just such at good time at the manor!
Also during the week I had the delight of spending time with a select few individuals – Sara Groff stole me away for an evening. I also went to my Uncle Terry, Aunt Joanie, and cousins Alyse and Austin’s house for a few hours. My last night Kelly Shenk and Peter Koontz came to visit as well. So it was really nice to get to spend a little bit of time with those people throughout the week! Although it was interesting – those of us who left in the evenings to be with family/friends all discussed the fact that part of us didn’t want to leave – there was always so much fun and learning going on that we really didn’t even want to miss out on it. Evenings were full of just hanging out and talking, playing music, birthday fiestas and despedidas, and going to the park to play volleyball, tennis, etc. It was awesome.
So, enough about orientation. Now I’m in Mexico! woot woot. Yesterday morning at 8 am Marcos and I left for the airport. Marcos is part of the YAMEN! program and is from Argentina. He will also be in Mexico this year, though sadly very very far away from where I will be. Anyways, we flew out of Philadelphia … when we got to the airport I was so bound and determined to get McDonald’s breakfast (surprising, I know) because generally McDonald’s in other countries don’t serve breakfast and I wanted one last sausage and egg mcgriddle! … and so we set out on to find it – with all our stuff – we ended up walking for casi 30 minutes … and when we got there they weren’t serving breakfast anymore! It was slightly traumatizing. Ah well. Our flights were pretty good – Marcos thought he was going to die on the first one and I thought the same on the second one, but we survived. I was slightly depressed that in my one hour layover in Houston I was so close to my brother but didn’t get to see him L sorries jason! When we were coming into Mexico City there was a thunderstorm that we were seriously flying right into – I have never been so close to bolts of lightening in my life and frankly I was scared to death. And p.s. this city is HUGE. Like nothing I have ever seen. It’s incredible. And it’s right in the middle of all these mountains – it was really quite beautiful to see from the air. and i found out once i was here that it is the biggest city in the entire world...crazy...
So we got in around 6 and I was scared to death of customs – but it was easy breezy no problem. Ricardo (MCC Rep) met us at the airport. We came back to the MCC Guest House/Office where we met Kiara, another MCCer, and Marion (Ricardo’s wife) and their daughter Isabel (2 years old – SO cute). We all went out for dinner and words can’t describe how excited I am to be eating Mexican food for the next year. It is so good. I don’t even know what the name of what we had was – but it included meat off of those giant slabs of meat on rotisseries in the street that rotate round and round and utterly gross me out usually. Yeah – it’s good. And mmm spicy! If that is any indication of what I will be eating for the next year – I’m stoked!
So I will be staying at the MCC Guest House for I think the next two weeks (I’m not positive exactly…) The 27th all the solteros in MCC (the single ones) are heading to an MCC retreat. I’m not quite sure why those of us who are single are going a day early…odd…but anyways, the married ones will come the 28th. We’ll be at retreat until August 31 (I have no idea where it is). In the mean time I think I will be spending lots of time getting to know the city, learning about the country, and possibly visiting Cuernavaca (where I will be for the rest of the year)
My thoughts and feelings … well I told Marcos that I feel like I’m going on vacation. It doesn’t even feel like I’m going to be gone for a year, and frankly I’m so super excited to be here that I haven’t felt nervous or scared at all yet (well, minus when I was flying in a giant metal hunk right next to bolts of lightening and when I was going through customs). I am just really happy to be here. It’s going to be a lot of fun .. at least this next month I am positive about that. And the rest of the year too. I have talked to several people about my assignment – my living and working situation – and I would greatly appreciate your prayers for those situations and that I may have strength to deal with any challenges that may come my way.
I suppose that is all for now. Basically – I had a phenomenal week at orientation. And I’m super excited to be here now J Take care, and keep in touch. I will try to write again sometime soon about my adventures here in mexico city orienting myself to this country.
okay i´m not sure how this whole photo thing works, but i will try it out ...
mcc welcoming place - aka the compound
playing sand volleyball down in the park
MANOR HOUSE! - all of us either coming from or going to latin america
my roommates - dora y laura
mis nuevas amigas y yo heading off to our comissioning service
hanging out in the manor
we had all kinds of fun and fiestas in the evenings
we also danced thriller - there was a talent show where we were supposed to perform songs or dances from our culture - so of course what better to do than honor the king of pop.
if you want to check out our attempt at it go here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaW7_Z9y5WA (though keep in mind we only started practicing the night before ... )
