Viva Mexico!

Mexico
1/13/2010

Wow, so we are on the road again! We just got into Mexico City (DF) This morning, and we right back in the thick of culture shock! Before I get too far, I'll let you know what we've done since our last post in... St. Croix (that was a while ago).
After we left St. Croix, we headed back to Idaho after 9 months on the road. We got to travel around the mountains, do some fly-fishing, and a few road trips, one in the Pacific Northwest, and a Christmas trip to California. We also traveled to Boston, and saw my family in Connecticut. In Idaho we worked at the costume shop as temporary seasonal during Halloween, and also had lots of success substitute teaching in Boise. After a few months of winter we decided to continue our Spanish language learning, as well as do some volunteer work, and head down to Mexico.

After waking up at the ungodly hour of 4:30 and taking a rather enjoyable flight directly south to the tropical latitude of 19 degrees, we passed through customs, and finally got our first whiffs and heard our first sounds of Mexico City(DF)! I would have to say my first observation was that DF smells very similar to my university chemistry lab. Walking down the mile-long airport, we jump onto the metro(subway) in the direction of our couch-surfing hosts, Ahmed and Bronson. The metro costs 3 pesos (24 cents) and it takes us clear across the city. We get out of the subway in the Zona Condesa, a nice young, hip and friendly part of the city. Looking down the street you'll see lots of US cars, taxis, street vendors selling chicharones, Cheetos and other assorted candies. There are lots of people on the streets and in general everything is clean, and in good condition. (sidewalks are no broken, same with railings and street signs) The traffic is pretty loud, and there seems to be some type of very organized chaos.
We have some time to spend before our hosts get off work so we head into what looks like a "Dennys" called Vips. For US$10 we got two meals and a cup of coffee, they have filtered water here so we go ahead and get some glasses. Laina got black beans and rice, and I got some weird rolls with re-fried beans and melted cheese, they were delicious. We spent some time here, during which we both got major stomach aches, why? we don't know.
Getting to Ahmed and Bronson's put a smile on my face. Walking a few blocks away from the restaurant we pass a dress store, which Laina was drawn to like a magnet, and then we see a small restaurant which we need to go into, walk to the back and go upstairs to get to their place. Both Ahmed and Bronson are very friendly and welcome us into their home. We get to meet some friends, make a pasta dinner and settle in to watch some Mexican news. What a long day!