Where did I spend my final spring break as an undergraduate? The answer lies in the title of this blog.
I decided to go to Mexico City for various reasons.
Honestly, I was amazed at how many dogs I saw around the city. It seemed to be such a dog friendly place. That made me really happy.
Then we started our tour with two guides, Alberto and Julian. They took us around many of the city's main sights and monuments over the course of three hours. It was hard work under the heat (and with a bike that was a bit too tall for me) but it was a great survey! James and I even got to go to the top of the revolution monument and get some great views. Plus, on Sundays, this major avenue is closed off to traffic and people are free to walk, bike, roller skate, etc.
As if that weren't enough, that evening, we met up with a girl named Melissa. She was an AFS exchange student to France the same year I was, and she went to the same high school as my ~best friend~, Sari. Melissa studies Latin American literature in Mexico City, and Sari had visited her there before, so even if Melissa and I had never met, we were connected through her. We met up with her in the Cineteca Nacional, a really cool cinema complex with shops and restaurants and artsy films. It was really fun to chat with her and get to know her!
Day 2: Monday, March 12
As I mentioned in this blog entry, I had a response paper due on Friday, March 9th, the day after my thesis. I thankfully was able to get an extension on it, but that meant I had to work on it during spring break. No matter! James also had work to do (or he would just read like the nerd that he is), so we spent most of the day in cafes, and I was able to get my response paper done and turn it in. The highlight cafe would be Tierra Garat, a cafe we went to several times during our week in Mexico City. It was recommended to me shortly before I left, and I'm really glad to have gone. It's got great work atmosphere and bomb iced chocolate. Would highly recommend.
For dinner, we got tacos on this street stand across from our Airbnb. They were real, cheap, and delicious. So was the horchata. We definitely went to this place on several occasions.
Day 3: Tuesday, March 13
The main order of the day was to take a short bus ride to Teotihuacán, a nearby town with a major archaeological site. I learned a lot about this city in the precolonial context in the class I took, so it was great to see it in real life!
Back in the city, we ate lunch at an actual restaurant and sat outside. A family with a pug sat next to us. I got to pet the pug. Her name was Trucha, which means "Trout." This was another major highlight of the day, if not the trip.
Day 4: Wednesday, March 14
That morning, we visited the National Anthropology Museum. I thought it pretty nifty that Mexico has a museum dedicated to anthropology. I saw more things talked about in class and had a fun time at both the ethnographic and archaeological exhibits.
Later that day, James and I had another Airbnb experience–a photo shoot with a photographer named Nirmal. For around two hours, we hung out with him and got some cool photos around the historical center. Even though it rained a lot, we made the best of it!
Day 5: Thursday, March 15
We spent this day in Coyoacán, the artsy neighborhood where Frida Kahlo lived. While we didn't end up visiting her house, we did visit Leon Trotsky's.
We visited the market and got lunch there, walked around, and ended up at this cafe called El Beneficio de la Duda (The Benefit of the Doubt). Inside, we waited out the rain a bit, then walked to the Cineteca Nacional to watch The Shape of Water. Seemed appropriate, as the film has recently won many awards and has a Mexican director!
Day 6: Friday, March 16
For our last full day in Mexico, we didn't do much. I failed to find a flautas place (or more like, Google Maps failed to give me reliable information), and we just ate more tacos at a more bougie place, got churros at another El Moro branch, then settled down in a cafe called Dosis to get some work done. I had a tasty iced honey latte. There was a man with a lovely dog sharing the table with us. All was well. Because our flights left quite early the next day, we spent our last night at a hotel by the airport I had booked prior to the trip. It was nice to be in a hotel. After checking in I didn't even leave the room (I made James leave to go do things like reserve an airport shuttle for the next morning though). After a packed week it was good to relax, so we ordered room service and watched a movie on Netflix called Cloud Atlas. The movie was almost three hours long and really enjoyable; it was definitely my kind of story.
Day 7: Saturday, March 17
This was yesterday–yes, I am actually writing a blog entry and publishing it on the day it's meant to be published!! It was a very, very long day. But I made it back to Cambridge without any incident and am now ready for the second half of my last semester.
In the meantime, I will look back fondly on my spring break and look forward to the next adventures I'll share with James. Hasta luego!
I decided to go to Mexico City for various reasons.
- I took two classes about Mexico last semester, one that actually talked a lot about the Aztecs and Spanish colonization in the city/what was there before. I figured it'd be good to pay them a visit and see what we discussed in class for myself.
- I was going to spend my spring break with my finally-not-nonexistent boyfriend, and he really wanted to go to Mexico City. He had visited Guadalajara before and really loved Mexico.
- I wanted to eat tacos. Real, cheap, delicious tacos.
- I suggested to my mom that I go home for Oregon, but she wasn't really keen on hosting said finally-not-nonexistent boyfriend and myself, and it was also really expensive to fly back to Oregon. She said we were better off going to Mexico City.
Whatever mother says, goes, and with that I booked a trip to Mexico City for a week!
Except I got tickets from JFK and not BOS because they were way cheaper, which meant I annoyingly had to take a bus to/from New York City and would spend two whole days traveling of my spring break. But was it worth it? Pero sí. Claro que sí.
Here is a brief day by day account of our highlights in Mexico City.
Day 0: Saturday, March 10
This is when we arrived. Not much to say here, besides Terminal 1 in JFK has a nice food court which is easily accessible if you have time (which I had lots of) from Terminal 7.
Day 1: Sunday, March 11
We booked an Airbnb experience, Sights on Bikes, a 3-hour bike tour for this day. But before then, we hung around Parque México in La Condesa neighborhood. There was a dog park and some kind of adoption fair going on (my heart!! Why couldn't I adopt any doggy? Oh right, because I don't live in Mexico City), and there was also a wonderful churro place called El Moro, where we got breakfast.
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| Four churros, condensed milk dip, and an Oreo milkshake is how we like to do breakfast |
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| "Don't buy a purebred; adopt one without a home" I cry |
Then we started our tour with two guides, Alberto and Julian. They took us around many of the city's main sights and monuments over the course of three hours. It was hard work under the heat (and with a bike that was a bit too tall for me) but it was a great survey! James and I even got to go to the top of the revolution monument and get some great views. Plus, on Sundays, this major avenue is closed off to traffic and people are free to walk, bike, roller skate, etc.
As if that weren't enough, that evening, we met up with a girl named Melissa. She was an AFS exchange student to France the same year I was, and she went to the same high school as my ~best friend~, Sari. Melissa studies Latin American literature in Mexico City, and Sari had visited her there before, so even if Melissa and I had never met, we were connected through her. We met up with her in the Cineteca Nacional, a really cool cinema complex with shops and restaurants and artsy films. It was really fun to chat with her and get to know her!
Day 2: Monday, March 12
As I mentioned in this blog entry, I had a response paper due on Friday, March 9th, the day after my thesis. I thankfully was able to get an extension on it, but that meant I had to work on it during spring break. No matter! James also had work to do (or he would just read like the nerd that he is), so we spent most of the day in cafes, and I was able to get my response paper done and turn it in. The highlight cafe would be Tierra Garat, a cafe we went to several times during our week in Mexico City. It was recommended to me shortly before I left, and I'm really glad to have gone. It's got great work atmosphere and bomb iced chocolate. Would highly recommend.
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| (Not my picture) |
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| Pls give me more tacos al pastor I'll do anything |
The main order of the day was to take a short bus ride to Teotihuacán, a nearby town with a major archaeological site. I learned a lot about this city in the precolonial context in the class I took, so it was great to see it in real life!
Back in the city, we ate lunch at an actual restaurant and sat outside. A family with a pug sat next to us. I got to pet the pug. Her name was Trucha, which means "Trout." This was another major highlight of the day, if not the trip.
Day 4: Wednesday, March 14
That morning, we visited the National Anthropology Museum. I thought it pretty nifty that Mexico has a museum dedicated to anthropology. I saw more things talked about in class and had a fun time at both the ethnographic and archaeological exhibits.
Later that day, James and I had another Airbnb experience–a photo shoot with a photographer named Nirmal. For around two hours, we hung out with him and got some cool photos around the historical center. Even though it rained a lot, we made the best of it!
Day 5: Thursday, March 15
We spent this day in Coyoacán, the artsy neighborhood where Frida Kahlo lived. While we didn't end up visiting her house, we did visit Leon Trotsky's.
We visited the market and got lunch there, walked around, and ended up at this cafe called El Beneficio de la Duda (The Benefit of the Doubt). Inside, we waited out the rain a bit, then walked to the Cineteca Nacional to watch The Shape of Water. Seemed appropriate, as the film has recently won many awards and has a Mexican director!
For our last full day in Mexico, we didn't do much. I failed to find a flautas place (or more like, Google Maps failed to give me reliable information), and we just ate more tacos at a more bougie place, got churros at another El Moro branch, then settled down in a cafe called Dosis to get some work done. I had a tasty iced honey latte. There was a man with a lovely dog sharing the table with us. All was well. Because our flights left quite early the next day, we spent our last night at a hotel by the airport I had booked prior to the trip. It was nice to be in a hotel. After checking in I didn't even leave the room (I made James leave to go do things like reserve an airport shuttle for the next morning though). After a packed week it was good to relax, so we ordered room service and watched a movie on Netflix called Cloud Atlas. The movie was almost three hours long and really enjoyable; it was definitely my kind of story.
Day 7: Saturday, March 17
This was yesterday–yes, I am actually writing a blog entry and publishing it on the day it's meant to be published!! It was a very, very long day. But I made it back to Cambridge without any incident and am now ready for the second half of my last semester.
In the meantime, I will look back fondly on my spring break and look forward to the next adventures I'll share with James. Hasta luego!
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