Fun! And a little school too...

Man, this week has gone by incredibly fast! I started classes Monday- it should be pretty interesting to get used to the differences between university classes here and at home. Students are a lot more vocal here, it seems. There’s a lot more freedom to react to things a professor says or does, which sometimes I find welcome. Other times I feel a little bit like I’m back in high school.

But I like my classes so far! I’m taking two classes in the Education department and two in the International Relations, since they don’t really have a “Latin American Studies” department… The Education classes are “Organization of Human Groups” and “Politics and History of Education in Mexico.” The first one is all girls. The second has two boys. Makes me feel a little bit more like I’m at Southwestern still… The two RI classes are “Intro to Studies of International Relations” and “Latin America and the Caribbean.” Those two are definitely more gender balanced. (and therefore a little more rowdy it seems).

My school - Universidad La Salle

And again! Pretty, no?

Everyone in my classes have been really nice and helpful. I have at least one other international student in each one two, which makes me feel a little better. I’m hoping professors will be pretty understanding of my awful Spanish… Or maybe I’ll just become fluent over night, who knows?

A few of us don’t have classes on Fridays, which is possibly the best thing ever. So yesterday we went to the National Museum of Anthropology, the biggest museum in Latin America. And gooooodness is it big! We spent about three or four hours there and didn’t even get through half of it! But it’s a really cool museum and I’ll definitely be making a trip back to see the rest. And maybe another to catch everything else I missed.

Model of an ancient ball game

I can't remember where this statue was from (Mayans, Incas, Toltecs...) Which is another reason I need to go back. Maybe fifty times.

Maybe I'll make it a weekly event...

Since we were close, we also swung by the Zocolo, the main plaza in the center of town. It's surrounded by the National Palace, the National Cathedral, and a pretty bumping commercial district. A little ways behind the Cathedral is the Templo Mayor, the main Aztec temple that wasn't rediscovered until the late 1970s because the Spaniard had built their city on top of it.

There was a pretty interesting public art performance going on while we were there, that I still don’t quite understand, but it was definitely funny.

They were drawing chalk squares around anyone that was standing still for any amount of time... and then we weren't aloud to leave the square.

It must have been some psychological experiment... haha

On a side note, I’m still having a pretty fun (NOT) adventure with my wisdom teeth. Somehow, my dry socket has persisted in being the bane of my existence. But now I can say that I’ve been to a dentist in Mexico! Twice! The first time the power was out, which was quite an experience… And it was pretty fun trying to explain how my mouth was hurting in Spanish. BUT I think the last medicine I got might finally be helping. And it only cost me 100 pesos (8USD) per visit!

Today is my two week anniversary of being here! My host dad said he would by me a cake. I told him he should buy one every Saturday - I’m going to have a lot of anniversaries!