****** Taken from my personal blog: http://paprikaandsombrero.wordpress.com/*****
Soooo time has come for me to finally start my Mexican blog after having spent a more than a week on Aztec land.
I’ve had a very eventful week to say at the very least but let me start at the beginning. The journey from Budapest to Mexico City was unbelievably long (I got up at 2:30am to go to the airport and went to bed at 6am the following day). I met the other students from the Uni in Amsterdam and we embarked together on what’s ought to be probably the craziest experience of our lives so far. The 11 hour-long flight from Amsterdam seemed never-ending although I must admit that watching 300 in turbulence was kind of a real-life 4D experience!
When we finally arrived to Mexico City we found out right away that what people had been gossiping about Mexican roads is actually true – there are no rules!! People switch lines without prior notice, taxis can be illegally cramped of people and luggage without anyone caring, drivers blow their horns at all times (as if it was of any use) and crossing roads is basically a death wish.
On Tuesday I had my first Mexican meal at the restaurant of our hotel:
After breakfast one of the teachers from the Anglo picked us up and took us to the Anthropology museum followed by a quick training on how to use the metro and buses in the capital. I was amazed how cheap it is even for Hungarian standards (and ridiculously cheap for English standards)
We have also seen the “voladores”. Basically, a couple of guys in traditional Mexican outfit doing some kind of a ritual to make rain by climbing up a very long pole and then throwing themselves off and circling it upside down, suspended only by a rope….as you would.
This was followed by our first trip to a Mexican supermarket, which -much to my surprise- was full of products that we can find in Europe as well. We bought a traditional Day of the Dead pastry as well, which was supposed to look like a skull, but it didn’t. It was really good though!
On our 2nd day we went on a tour bus and had a nice look around the capital. I was amazed that we had this one bracelet and for the whole day we could just jump on and off the tour bus wherever we wanted. What I found to be really different was the fact that Mexican roads are really wide, 3-4 lines normally each way and it’s veeery busy. Initially I thought this was only the capital but in Toluca I found it to be the same. Nevertheless, it was really amusing especially the part where we had to duck under every tree we went past.
We then visited some famous Mexican sights like el Palacio de bellas artes and Zócalo with the cathedral. We had lunch in a huge mall where I had a menu which consisted of some soup of which the ingredients I failed to identify, flautas, which is a crispy tortilla-like thingy filled with cheese (even though I asked for chicken) and enchilada sauce, cream and grated cheese on top, and some weird fruity water (agua de frutas), which is apparently very popular in Mexico. They had various flavours but when I asked the guy what they were, I didn’t understand a word he said so I just randomly pointed at one. Eating out in Mexico is always a bit of a pig in a poke and you can only hope that you’ll like the mysterious food that you order. I’ve had good experiences so far though, I haven’t had anything that I reeeeally didn’t like.
On Thursday it was time for our little Uni group to split up and everyone headed to their destination. It was quite scary to say at the very least not to mention that I managed to catch a cold at the best possible time. A French guy working at the Anglo in Toluca was nice enough to take me with Yoni so that I didn’t have to go by coach. As it revealed he was from a town close to where I was working during summer! What are the odds!! When I arrived I met up with the dean of our faculty, who was sooo nice! He took me to the faculty and introduced me to about 12154 people, whose names I forgot right away. They were all very open and welcoming. I’ve been here for a few days now but I just can’t get over the fact how affectionate people are. Everyone kisses me and hugs me without actually knowing who I am, they want to know about me, they constantly offer to help me with whatever I need….I still need some time to get used to this.
Following the little tour in the faculty the dean took me to my host family. So, I’m living with a Mexican couple (later referred to as señora and señor) and Carlos Manuel, an exchange student from Colombia. They’re all very nice and treat me as family. Señora cooks every day and completely spoils me haha. I will write another entry about my observations about food so watch this space!
On Friday we went to Tepozotlán (Mexican city names are impossible to remember) and had a fantastic lunch/dinner in a very traditional Mexican restaurant. Not understanding much of the menu, señora suggested me a meal, which was deviiiine. I also had my first real Mexican tequila shot (shots are soo much bigger here!!) and some Corona michelada (beer with lemon juice and the edge of the glass is hinted with salt). After eating we listened to some traditional Mexican tunes played by local musicians it was great fun!
On Sunday Carlos and I went out for breakfast to this local place to eat barbacoa. It was amazing, the minute I stepped in some guy handed me a tortilla with some meat in it….we then sat down and there were onions, parsley mixed with other herbs presumably, lemon and 2 different sauces to put in the tortilla. As I found out the meat in the tortilla was lamb, called barbacoa. It was delicious! And for the bargain price of about 70 P each!! When we were about to leave, we noticed that they were cooking something not exactly appetizing in a huge bowl so we asked what it was. It looked like meat in some kind of sauce. The guy started explaining what it was but all I could understand was that the sauce was lamb blood….he offered to give me some to try for free so I decided to be adventurous and tried it. It actually tasted quite good, although I found out later that what I had thought was meat was actually cooked blood ewww…..
Later on we went for a tour around Toluca with Carlos and his friend Juan, a really nice Mexican from the Uni. I bought some Mexican candy, which was quite an experience. There was a really nice mango one, a sweet mango paste basically, some really cool little balls that had a sweet taste at first but after a while it was spicy, and a lollipop of a strawberry-like flavour but I don’t think it was actually strawberry and there was some powder to go with it, which was basically salt mixed with chilly, a bit too much for me to be honest.
So this was my first week in Mexico. More to come later!