"We danced our asses off"

The salsa club was absolutely amazing.  We went with a girl we met at the hostel named Veridiana who is from Brazil!  The second we walked in we were already dancing.  If you want a break you have to hide or decline an invite to dance but I suggest you take every opportunity you can.  Everyone I danced with had a different style and it was cool to learn every time.  The ages were very different too.  I danced with as young as 20 to as old as my grandpa and they can all dance!  No matter how old you are, odds are you can dance.  There was a live Cuban band playing which was awesome.  Whether I looked like I knew what I was doing or not it didn’t matter, the dance floor is packed and everyone is sweating their asses off and loves it.

Sunday we saw Mexico City come alive!  We went shopping for a bit and saw a bunch of people in long white lab coats and one guy who had “Yo Soy #17” on the back which means I am number 17.  I asked someone about it and turns out it’s a protest in honor of a doctor in Guadalajara who was killed by a gang.  White represents all of the problems of Mexico and Guadalajara is district 17.  Therefore placing all the blame on Guadalajara.

 We kept walking through the city towards the big golden angel in downtown, stopped and got a 10 minute massage on the side of the street for about 50 pesos, and we noticed a bunch of bikes and no cars, at first we thought it was another protest against pollution or something but turns out it’s called paseo ciclista – cyclist path – where a large amount of roads are closed down every Sunday from 7 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon for bikers and exercise.  Next there was a huge march of people all chanting about animal rights with all their pets walking in the street and painted head to toe like tigers.  They all met up in the cathedral later and kept on with their protest.  At first I thought it was just a Sunday thing where are the protests come out but turns out it’s very common and I’ve already heard about so many more that are going on now, one actually a protest against the paseo. 

 

We left shortly after and drove to Cuernavaca with José Luís who talked to us a lot about the government in Mexico, bull fights, the United States, and much more.  There are about 6 or 7 government districts under the federal government and in each one they have different ideas.  In his opinion, he isn’t too fond of the government.  They took thousands of dollars from the linea ­– metro - which caused the station to go out of business they did not have enough money.  They now have a new metro system and who knows what will happen to it.  The government is also fighting to stop bullfighting, which is only supported by the upper class, yet the lawyers are fighting to keep it alive for the tradition and culture.  Our brother has said that he wouldn’t want to be in the US because even though everyone thinks they have freedom to him there’s more freedom in Mexico.  The US government gives so much money and support to citizens that they begin to depend on the government.  Yet in Mexico, the government is so corrupt that there basically is no reason for laws – therefore you’re independent here.  I’d never thought to look at it like that and usually government and politics isn’t exciting to me but all of the ideas here are so interesting.

The family I’m living with is familia Jimenez and they have a son, Edson, who is 24 and his brother Guillermo, “memo,” who comes for comida during his breaks from teaching.  Comida is lunch here and it’s their biggest meal.  You have a light breakfast usually with fruit, eggs, and coffee.  Our mom packs us a lunch to take to class, which we are at from 9-1 and then we meet with our professor and come back around 2.  And at night there’s a light dinner between 8 and 10.  One thing I’ve noticed with food that is different is when you ask for salsa, they bring you jalapeños, carrots, onions, and the juice of it all.  Salsa is nothing like the appetizers and munchies in the US.  Fried chicken is actually pretty big here too – the only fast food places are KFC and McDonalds.  Turns out the reason why there’s no salt and pepper on the tables here is because of the government – they’re trying to reduce obesity.

Today we went to Taxco - a big place to go for silver.  It is absolutely gorgeous with all of the buildings and houses white.  If someone’s house wasn’t actually white they had to pay a fine monthly and if they didn’t pay the fine they went to jail, then usually got out and repainted there houses.  There’s also a duplicate of the Christ monument from Brazil.  All of the taxis are vintage white Volkswagen bugs and the streets are so narrow that they have to do doble sentidos which means that they can’t even make a complete turn sometimes and have to reverse back to get onto the next street. 

My Spanish has been going really well!! Definitely improving on my grammar with the classes and it helps a lot that I’ve been translating for Dhara – who actually left this morning for New York!  Tonight there’s a party at the school with all the students and teachers and tomorrow is the GAME!!  I’m going downtown to watch it so it should be crazy.  Can’t wait!  Viva México!