Besancon, France- Oh, Champs Elysées...

Last night, I went with Juliette and my host dad to see the musical FAME at the Comédie Théâtre in Paris. It was very entertaining! I couldn't compare it to a Broadway show (seeing as how I've never seen an actual B'way show) but it was pretty good! It's a good thing I saw the movie in English before the live version in French- it helped me follow along a lot easier. I still didn't catch everything, though, because there were several differences in the script that weren't part of the movie.

I feel like my spoken French is improving loads- especially after having spent so much time with my host sister and brothers. The other day, Yohan (Juliette's older brother, Samuel's younger) helped me bring my things from Luna Park to Laurent's apartment, where I stayed one night before moving to Arlette's mothers' apartment. He was very helpful and I hope he knows how grateful I was for his help. That day while we were waiting to meet up with Laurent, we went to Champs Elysées and walked up and down the strip, stopping at random boutiques here and there. We stopped at a Starbucks to treat ourselves to a Frappuccino before going to the Ciné to see yet another American film, Penelope. Very cute film. It was dubbed in French, so again I had to pay close attention to follow along, but well worth it.

Thursday- May 2nd
I'm leaving in thirteen days. I succeeded in moving the date up to May 15th at the steep price of $95 (the ticket price for the flight stayed the same, which is unfortunate because it would have been over $200 of a difference!) But either way, it's worth it because I'll be home in time for my little brother's birthday. He was happy to hear that. But now, since I'm quite pressed for money, I'll have to check out what events around here are cheap/free. Tonight there's a music festival on campus, and I was invited by Samuel. Should be interesting! Until then, i'm spending time on the balcony (with a beautiful view of Centre Ville) listening to music on my computer. I really enjoy the quiet here at Arlette's. Last weekend Yohan and his cousin, her boyfriend, and another guy all stayed over. It was pretty loud, sometimes a bit hard to fall asleep but the piano/guitar duets didn't last too long into the night.

Saturday- May 5th
Today is gorgeous. I'm laying on the grass by the Doubs. There are a bunch of people already here that had the exact same idea. I adore this spot- it's like a beach without the sand. It's nice to be able to take advantage of the sun for at least a few days (I heard it's not going to be as nice tomorrow :-/ ) (Post-France edit: I think I spent more time outside in Besac because it was the French thing to do! Also, it helped that I was so close to Centre Ville, and you didn't have to go far in any direction to have a beautiful view of the river, the Citadelle, et cetera.)

Berlin May 24, 2009 Munich and beyond

Alright, so I left off right before our tip to Munich I believe. The flight over and everything went perfectly well. In fact there were no real mess-ups in the entire trip that I can think of, which was very fortunate. One may only note that the sky is gray in most of the pictures, but it even opened up for us a bit on our trip to Neuschwanstein (castle new-swan-stone). On our first day we wandered around town and saw all the local sites in the old city. We tried out an authentic Bavarian restaurant, which was passable, but not excellent. We wandered around and checked out all the government buildings and statues littered all across the main city square.


The next day we were up to go see the castle! We had to take two trains and two busses over the course of two hours just to get there, but it was very worth it. We hiked up a steep incline for about twenty minutes until we got to the bridge with a beautiful view of the castle, which this picture illustrates. Sadly the castle was covered for renovation, but you can still get a very good idea of it's gloriousness... plus that just tends to happen all the time so I get use to it. The castle itself was beautiful, though we couldn't take any pictures from within it. There was a ton of elaborate wooden carvings, and the place was completely filled with swan sculptures and pictures... there area was once ruled by a royal regime known as the knights of swan, hence why Ludwig the second themed his castle as he did.







A strange story goes along with Ludwig 2, who built this castle with the royal families money, throwing their once wealth estate into debt. Shortly before his mysterious death he was removed from power for dissolving parliament three times in under two years, claiming he was mentally unfit for this one and only power. Several months after his and his psychologist body are found dead in a lake. Some claim suicide and others claim murder, since they were only in knee-deep water... Either way, the man's legacy lives on in one of the most mysterious and beautiful castles in the entire world. I felt more than fortunate to view this masterpiece with my own eyes with my love Kristina. As you can tell, we also had a very nice tour guide named Mike. He was from Minnesota actually... if you ever want to plan a tour of Neuschuanstein go through Viator and ask for him! They arrange all the traveling details and whatnot, which is necessary to get there. I know I would have gotten completely lost.

So the rest of the time in Munich was great. The best restaurant we went to was an Irish/Australian pub and restaurant behind the tall Frauenkirche. They served amazing food! Ironic how the most cultured places in any cultural location tend to be in representation of other cultural places? How silly! We also saw the Nymph palace, which had, as you could guess tons of swans swimming around in front of it. The inside was influenced by the French short-lived empire, but was quite beautiful.


We also checked out the old Olympic stadium with its infamous history; see the film "Munich" for more on that... It's a pretty ugly stadium actually, but it's huge and the funny part is that AC/DC was playing there that night so we got to hear them warming up as we passed by... and I'll certainly live on not having seen them... lol. Not sure how much shaking they'll be doing all night long at their age, but hats off to them for persistence. We went to the English Garden as well which was very large and quite beautiful. There was an interesting little Chinese tower in the center of the garden with an expensive little restaurant... it' a good place to eat, but you can't get anything under 10 Euro per person really; Tourist prices, which I try to avoid when possible.





The bar at our own Hostel, The Wombat was also phenomenal, as well as also being Australian themed! We got a very generous plate of nachos there, though German salsa is gross... it just takes like sugary ketchup with maybe a little chili powder or something... German cousine has never really impressed me, especially in reflection to sauces, which tend to all be either cheese based cranberry or Ketchup based, and vary quite little... curry sauce is usually just ketchup with a little curry sprinkled on it, but practicality and efficacy are the key words in all that is German! Has it good and bad sides I guess.



We also watched x-men origins while we were there just to take a break from all the walking around. It was in German because we had just missed the English showing by 10 minutes or so. I did my best to help Kristina through it, but I think I'd like to see it again in English just to get a few of the dialogue sequences down... not that I think I missed anything pivotal in my first view... I really don't know what people expect from action movies these days... critics complain because they're brainless, but isn't that what we go to them for? Maybe the problem is that the market encourages such, and now we're being flooded with hundreds of brainless action thriller movies wit not substance or plot... see my Tarintio debate post on Facebook for more on that and his new ridiculous movie... honestly, This director is just a controversy addict, and attention whore if you ask me, but at least he's original... to say the least.
So then we went back, hung out with my friends for a little bit to watch that sill Eurovision thing... hillarious kariokie style sing/dance off between all European countries by less than known performers... we made an elaborate drinking game out of it, though Kristina had to go to sleep pretty early for her flight back.
So not much has happened since then really... I took a picture of the incredible amount of SEEDS falling from the tress on my neighborhood. It's insane. they totally covered the ground like snow.



I also went to an open air theater in Friedrichsheim park, which was showing the most ridiculous French film I ever saw called "Louise-Michel" It was about a bunch of French factory workers that try to kill their old boss who had outsourced their company and left them all jobless... there's an ugly woman who eats pigeons she catches in a mouse trap, and a fat man who sells guns who she hires to kill this guy... they're both psychopath murdering imbeciles and the bit spin in the end... well I'll leave it to all of you to find out... It's not a terrible movie really except for the part they show some guy blowing up simulated models of the wtc for his own sick amusement... I guess it' wasn't too offensive, but even I found it to be a bit much.


Just yesterday I went and visited the soviet memorial in Treptow park. It was very impressive, and I like it very much. I was a bit over-glorious, but it deserved, since at least 70,000 people died just in the final battle in capturing Berlin. The memorial served it's purpose well in serving as a mass-grave for all those who couldn't be buried.

Think that's about all I have for now... man this turned out to be by far the longest blog I've ever written me thinks... Who knows though... I'm still practicing for the play I'm in, and getting a little nervous about all these lines I have to memorize... they say I don't have to have them all perfectly memorized for this Monday, but that still implies I should have most of them, where only have a little over half so far... I'll keep working on it! I hope I can still at least plan a trip to Hamburg, Krakow and/or Copenhagen, but time is running thin... either way I'm doing well, and am very satisfied with all I've already gotten to do here in my trip to Berlin... It's been such an amazing trip, and I still have 1.5 months to go!
Best wishes to everyone out there,
Dave

Queretaro, Mexico: Semana Santa Pt. 3 Chiapas

Here we are, the final leg of my two week adventure in Southern Mexico. I hope to wrap up the entire trip in the next two entries and then write a short little entries about daily life in Queretaro. Friends, parties, salsa dancing, mojitos. You know, the REALLY important stuff.

Anyhoo, after Katie and I wished her parents a heart-filled "bon voyage" back to the States, we boarded our own plane to Tuxtla, Chiapas. This flight seemed to be an omen of our upcoming week when things did not go exactly as planned. Despite the lovely weather, the plane felt like it was flying through a blizzard because there was so much turbulence. While Katie and I gripped the armrests of our chairs praying we would at least crash land successfully, our fellow Mexican passengers (of course) casually read their in-flight magazines or slept. I suppose at this point, I should have realized that public transportation in Mexico, no matter what mode, is a crap shoot that miraculously (and barely) always rolls up 7.

After a tense one hour flight, Katie and I landed in the middle of no where (aka Tuxtla). The funniest part was the fact that the pilot said, as we pulled up to the gate, "And your bags will be on conveyer belt 1," but as we enter the airport, we reaize that, in fact, there is only one belt. One tip for the Tuxtla airport: if you ever get lost, just turn around and you'll find what you need. Okay, I'm done jabbing Tuxtla because actually, it is one of the nicest and cleanest airports I have ever been in during my 21 years of intense travel.

A short colectivo (van) ride later, we arrived in San Cristobal de las Casas (aka Hippie Capital of the World). I only say that because the majority of foreign tourists were European or Californian backpackers that preferred the hammocks in the patio to their beds indoors, which was totally awesome and they made wonderful hostel mates during the nightly bonfires. I have to say that San Cristobal is up there on my list of "Cutest Cities in the World" because all of the buildings are brightly painted in blues, yellows, reds, every color imaginable and it's impeccably clean despite Chiapas' reputation as the poorest state of Mexico.





San Cristobal has a fascinating history, which I won't go into at this particular moment, but it's most recent history involves the town in the Zapatista movement, which is a movement of indigenous farmers fighting the government for their basic rights to sell their products in a fair environment. Currently, many establishments in the city display Zapatista art as a show of support. If you'd like to know more about what the Zapatista or EZLN movement is, let me know and I would be more than happy to share the knowledge I have on the subject.



This area also has been home to the Maya people for centuries, who are the modern day Tzotzil's ancestors. One small town nearby, called San Juan Chamula, is simply amazing because of the traditions they still hold onto despite the arrival of the Spanish and globalization. Katie and I took a day trip to the village and we were greatly surprised when our guide told us that we should guard our cameras and take pictures with caution because community Elders will confiscate and destroy pictures as the townspeople believe that taking a picture robs a person of their soul. Picture taking is absolutely forbidden within the small church as the Saints' souls can also be stolen via photos, so unfortunately, I only have a handful of pictures from the market in front of the church.



As you can see, the majority of the people wear woolen tunics or woolen skirts as it is the biggest commodity in this mountainous region. Now, the real reason that Katie and I took this trip to San Juan Chamula was to see the religious services. Although the entire village is Catholic, their worship differs greatly from the conventional Catholic church because most of their practices are indigenous in origin. The entire incense-filled church is empty of pews and in their place, pine needles litter the floor as people kneel on the needles and among lit candles as a sign of humility and worship. Indigenous drums and flutes fill the church with music instead of choirs and organs and community Elders run the service instead of priests. Katie and I had the special privilege of visiting San Juan Chamula on Easter Sunday so the elders proudly displayed all of their saint statues along the walls of the church. I can still smell the incense (they were really strong, I probably still have bits of the herbs in my nose yet) and hear the music if I close my eyes.

San Juan Chamula also, interestingly, uses Coca-Cola as a sort of holy water. Drinking it cures the soul of its maladies by burping away evil spirits and spraying the church floor with Coke cleanses the space. It is a curious little town with beautiful people and beautiful traditions despite the numerous setbacks they've faced in the past 20 years. Nevertheless, although a good portion of the indigenous Chiapan community has been mistreated by the Mexican government over the years, their culture is so vibrant despite the hardships and that is probably the best part of Mexico. The smiles despite the setbacks and pain still astound me. Those smiles and the pleasant chit-chat with these people are the best memories I have brought home with me because they never fail to inspire me.

Berlin May 17, the busy continues!

OMG! So much has happened since two weeks ago, there's no way I'll be able to get it all in this note... I'll try my best to just get through some of the highlights, and I'll save the trip to Munich for when I get the photos from my fiancé
So, starting there, My fiancé visited me this week. She arrived last Saturday, and just flew back a few hours ago. Things were non-stop go from there till now, which is why I haven't had the chance to write anything from the week before or before that either... so where to begin,

So Monday the fifth we went to a bar in Nollendorf where they had this "Quiz-o-rama" thing going on. The bar's name was HAFEN, and it's on Botzstrasse. Amazing fun place. The quiz is in English once a month, so we were able to follow along much better. The questions ranged from simple stuff like "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?" To knowing which side of some ancient portrait someone's ear was hanging lower from... I also learned that Icarus was the god that tried to fly to the sun, but melted his wings, Cain was the first recorded birth in the bible and that there exists a nude photo of Jude Law on the internet somewhere! (Gay Bar... go Figure). Really fun place and we almost would have won too, if it weren't for missing two of them... I would have been able to get the super-hard tie-breaker question, which is how many feet are there in a mile... lolz... you wouldn't believe how esoteric such a fact is to most places outside the US.

I had an excursion with my Cultural Orientation class on that Thursday. It was pretty nice, though super long. We toured the ancient history of Berlin, and how it was founded originally as a ford town, because the Spree had so very few crossable places. We visited the first church ever built in Berlin as well. It was prety small, but nice. I'll put a photo up of that of course.

The next day I went on a tour with my partner Kensuke to Bormholerstrasse. This is the historical location that the border between East and West Berlin first opened. It's funny that they record November 9th as the day the wall fell, even though it was barely by even a nose at the end of the day, and this was the only location that had even opened by the end of November 9th... I think that's more of a self-fulfilling prophecy thing, since Germans just seem to have a dichotomously significant relationship whit the particular date: Krystal Nacht, the day hitler arrested all oppositional forces and declared total power over Germany and before that and after WW1 in 1923 when the first Democratic (Weimarer Republik) Government... what a political day! So yeah, that was a fun little excursion. We had to interview any passerby that would stop for a second to talk. We eventually found a friendly east German guy with a Rat-tail who gave us a little story, and we were done there.

The next day Kristina, my fiancé arrived! I was ecstatic. We wasted no time, and went out to a club together in Warschauer Strasse called "Matrix" Really nice and friendly place. Plus it's free entrance from 10 to 11. We drank and danced and had a great time there. It was some sort of Biance after party or something, and we got some random "Paparazzi" photo of us taken. They just took the photo and gave us some little information flyer on where to get the shot... first time that ever happened to me... oh and their go go girls were the most terrifying creatures I had ever seen... they could have ripped me in half... see my facebook profile if you'd like a short clip on that!

The next day we went to the Berlin Zoo, which is a must for anyone who comes to Berlin. You can easily spend a whole day there and not see everything, as we did. The highlights are as follows: The giraffes. There was a recent birth in this exhibit. The baby giraffe is very cute and awkward. The Panda is super cool, but you have to have some patience. Generally he's the laziest animal in the zoo, but every once in a while he will reward your devotion with a quick walk around his cage for you. The lions and tigers are super fun, especially during feeding time if you like that kinda stuff. The rhinos are a amazing, and they have a special house in the back of the zoo, where you can get really close to them... as most places in Germany, safety standards are kinda lax :). The seals and otters are also pretty fun, and of course the polar bears! They were involved in a recent current event if you look it up in the news; a woman just a month or two ago jumped into their cage DURING FEEDING TIME! She's probably the dumbest person to ever survive such a foolish act. They had to pull her out of there as the polar bears 'nommed' on her fat buttocks. The polar bear one was pacing back and forth eagerly when we arrived, waiting for the next bozo to jump in the pen with him for dinner. They pretty much have everything you could imagine in that place, including all kinds of nocturnal animals, rodents, felines, reptiles and Australian animals. We saw as much as we could, and got some pretty good photos.

The next day we went to the Pergamon Museum, which is an exhibit with tons of old middle-east ottoman style architecture and statue work. It had artifacts originating from places as far as India, and as close as Greece I'd say. It' a pretty good place to check out at any rate. We also went inside the Berliner Dom on the same day, which is the gigantic and beautiful church on the Museum Island. We had to kind of speed though there... gigantic crypt in the bottom full of deceased lords and nobles... wish we had more time to look around in there, but we were on a busy schedule! Went to an amazing Thai Restaurant that same night over... ah man, can't remember where we were... it was Germany's red-light district or something, but the food was amazing


The next day we were off to Munich, but I'll save that story until my Fiancé posts the photos up for me to share... amazing how culture exploration can lead you to so many other places...we all have sehenssucht for something else, as the world begins to tie the knots of a beautiful vicarious bow of exploration... More on that later with the Munich experience, but for now I'd better tend to my facebook farm! haha... peace all.
Dave

Besancon, France- The Louvre, a bit o' Paris, and AquaBoulevard

Today we went to the Louvre and checked out the Babylon exhibit, which was new and only going on for a short time. We spent about 3 hours there, then walked around Paris for a bit. We had drinks, ate Chinese and found a movie theatre close to the opera house we went to the other night. We saw "Deux Soeurs Pour un Roi", dubbed. *Mental note- see it in English to see what I missed!*

Academie Nationale de Musique

Sunday
I'm waiting for the shower key while Nikki looks for our friend Sarah downstairs. It looks a little cloudy and chilly outside today, but no matter- I'm going to a cafe after my shower to use the internet and find some show times for an opera today.
*ATTN* Future study abroad students- Don't forget to pack a power converter and adapter! I don't know how much they cost, because I was lucky and borrowed mine from a friend- but if you're going to be using your laptop or hair dryer or whatever that might have an American plug, you'll need a converter!

^Looking out of one of the windows of the Louvre

**later**
Juliette and I are now on the train, heading back to Besancon. I'm ready to be back in a semi-familiar area again, although Paris really was amazing. I truly appreciated all the things I got to do there (ballets, live theatre, spending time with Juliette, etc.) Yesterday was a blast. We went to a water park called AquaBoulevard, which wasn't too far from Arlette's mother's apartment. There, we spent 5 hours swinging from a rope into the pool, riding the waves on floats, sliding down enormous slides with and without floats, and relaxing in the jacuzzi. It was pretty nice outside these past few days in Paris. Today especially- I didn't even have to wear a coat! But maybe I owe that warmth to having dragged my luggage everywhere. That could be it. I didn't exactly pack "light" this time around. I think this was a learning experience for sure.

Queretaro, Mexico: Semana Santa/Mexico City Part 2

Wow, coming home from study abroad is super hectic. I've been busy greeting friends and family, getting back to work, and going to bridal showers so the WMU blog has been slightly neglected on my part. But as promised, here is Part 2 of 3 of my Semana Santa vacations in Mexico City and Chiapas.

So after visiting the Templo Mayor (Great Temple) by the Cathedral of Mexico City, Michael and I decided to meander over to Mexico's most famous religious site: The Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe. For those of you who are not familiar with the story, here is a quick, abridged version. In 1531, an Indian convert named Juan Diego was walking to Mass across Tepeyac Hill in what is now Mexico City proper. Suddenly, a beautiful dark-skinned (i.e. indigenous looking) female appeared before him and declared she was the Mother of Jesus Christ. The Virgin then explained to Juan Diego that she wanted a church built on this hill and instructed him to find the Bishop and tell him her desires. When the Bishop finally granted Juan Diego an audience, he did not believe the humble Indian man and demanded proof of said vision. Juan Diego, fearful of what he had seen, avoided the hill for days so as not to see the woman, but on his way to find a priest for a seriously ill man, the Virgin appeared to him once more and he told her what the Bishop had said. In response, the Virgin instructed Juan Diego to pick the roses that would be on Tepeyac Hill (normally a desolate, desert hill) and to give them to the Bishop as proof of her appearance.



Juan Diego obeyed and gathered in his mantle the roses that miraculously appeared on the desert hill and returned to the Bishop's office to give him the flowers. When the Bishop once again granted Juan Diego an audience, Juan let the flowers fall from his mantle and there on his clothing appeared an image of the brown-skinned Virgin, proof positive that Juan had witnessed a miracle. The bishop then immediately ordered the construction of a church on the hill where the miracle took place as the Virgin of Guadalupe had instructed. About a century or two later, the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe was built in front of Tepeyac Hill and in the 20th century, a new Basilica was built alongside the old and now houses the original mantle of Juan Diego. Today, the Church ontop of Tepeyac Hill looks nothing like the desolate hill of our story, but rather a bonafide Garden of Eden in the center of Mexico City.



The Old and New Basilica (pictured below) are equally beautiful and in the modern one, the mantle of Juan Diego hangs behind the altar. One helpful tip: There is mass just about every hour in the New Basilica with the mantle as the main attraction. You can get close to the relic by going to the right of the altar and down below, there is a people-mover that will allow you to see the mantle up close without disturbing the Mass going on above.





After our adventure greeting the most famous relic of Mexico, Michael and I spent the rest of the evening with one of the girls in the study abroad group who had been visiting the city with her parents. Unfortunately, Michael had to return to the States and I continued my Spring Break with my friend Katie (I know, two Katies). The following day, Katie and I went to the Palacio Nacional where some of the most famous murals of Diego Rivera (the husband of Frida Kahlo) are housed. I have to say that although Diego Rivera isn't my favorite Mexican artist of all time, the sheer size, magnitude, and detail of his murals astounded me and I have a new found respect for his life's work. The following link will give you some examples of his work and if you're interested in seeing more, just google his name.

http://diegorivera.com/murals/index.php

Afterwards, we headed back to the Anthropology Museum to finish the short tour we had the month before with our Mexican Culture professor Maria Elena. Obviously, I won't go through what I've seen again because that simply will be quite boring. That being said, I will leave you with one more picture from Chapultepec Park, the Central Park of Mexico City. In the meantime, I will organize my photos for the final part of Semana Santa: Chiapas.

Kaitie

Berlin 3.5.09 The World in Motion

First off, my sympathies to Katie for her trip in Mexico being cut short because of the crazy flu concerns. I can't believe what I just recently saw... someone made a fake post on BBC of a "zombie" version of this virus going around that can raise people back from the dead for about two hours. This posting really frightened me because it was very convincing looking, and there's already enough fear and tension going around the world over this already, though I certainly feel it's mostly just the media making a big deal over this. They said it themselves that every year around 10 thousand people die worldwide from flu anyway, so what's really so different with this virus? Is it just much more unpleasant of a flu, because I'll tell you, I've already been hospitalized by a flu once up in the Upper Peninsula Michigan, so I'd like to think I've seen the worst of flues... anyway, back to Germany


One would hardly realize such a virus was going on around here, neither do I think Germans would ever really care about such things. They're too busy administering self inflicted violence in their own capital in what has become and annual tradition here in Berlin.
Here's a bit of your daily history/political propoganda; (honestly, what else you think you can find the most of in Berlin?) May 1st has been known as Labor Day across the world for a long time. Almost everywhere except ironically where it began; in Chicago!

I was very surprised when I learned this, but the day became a day for workers and left wing extremist to protest capitalism and promote socialist agenda several decades ago. May first was chosen as this day because of the 1886 Haymarket affair. People in Chicago and other places around the US were protesting for fair working conditions; an 8 hour work day for starters. The protest turned violent, and ever since, May first has been infamous for all of those immigrant workers, and other countries, where American politics have done all they could to cover up this fact.



Necessity emerged during the cold war, where remembrance of this day looked very discouraging to the capitalist engine and brought attention to our diminishing workers unions and the prevalence of diminishing returns and ‘McJob’ poverty. Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now, and just say that all of this history has lead to annual populist rioting in Berlin, and I've got pictures of it! I made sure to stay far from the actual violence one could find on BBC and other site, since I'm sure WMU would not be happy for me to be doing anything but observing such events from a very far and safe distance. It was an incredibly exciting weekend, and the festivities before the rioting were also very nice.



I'm very excited that my fiancé will be visiting me here again next week. We're going to take a trip down to Munich and see Castle Neuschwanstein, so we're going to have plenty of beautiful pictures to take for that. Tonight we're going out to a gay bar for fun, and to take some sort of quiz or something. My friends will tell me more about it later I think wish me luck... lol. Germany; probably the most inappropriate place for a curious bugger like myself to be blogging about, don't you think? I just call things like I see them in the end!
Best wishes to everyone else out there, and I hope we're being read by somebody...
Dave

The cops... around 3,000 came to partake in the socialist smashing... I heard they actually had to apply for the job to come to Berlin... place of violence? Kann sein.

Queretaro, Mexico: Influenza and Mexico City

As all of you may know by now, the Queretaro program has been suspended because of the outbreak of what they are now calling H1N1 virus (aka swine flu). Although upset by the decision, I understand the predicament the university had found itself in and I cannot say I would have done anything differently were I in their position. Unfortunately, that does not make me miss my host family or my Mexican friends any less, but thank God for Internet and email. :)

In this entry, I will talk a little bit about what I saw in Mexico during the past few days and then I'm going to finish up my Semana Santa vacation in the next few entries.

The situation in Mexico has been a bit precarious this past week, to say the least. On Saturday, I heard the first real news about the swine flu and realized that something serious was going on Sunday afternoon when I stepped out of my house to tons of people wearing surgical masks to protect themselves from the new virus. Later that afternoon, the Mexican government had closed all the schools in the country until May 6th in order to prevent any further infections and I began to worry that the imminent cancellation from WMU would soon follow...unfortunately, my worst fears were concerned and here I find myself back in chilly Michigan.

I have to say that one of the reasons I am upset about the suspension of the program is because of the fact there are mixed reactions to the flu outbreak from various educated people in Mexico. Some older, wiser friends and professors have told me that these are necessary precautions and, in the end, I have to agree. It's always better to be safe than sorry. Others, however, doubt the severity of the situation and believe the media and government are exaggerating the entire outbreak because in reality, 2000 sick people in a city of 25 million is hardly a pandemic at all. Still others believe this whole epidemic is a government conspiracy that is meant to distract the Mexican public from the true current events that might upset the nation (i.e. the financial crisis in Mexico). As you can see, it's hard to form my own opinion with such contradictory information floating around in my head. In the end, airing on the side of caution is always best and, as they say, hind sight is 20/20 so even if this "epidemic" of influenza peters out in the next week, at the very least we are not in Mexico wondering, "what if...?"

Okay. Well, enough influenza for today. After staying in Merida for a week with my friend Michael, I met up with another girl in my study abroad group (Katie) and her parents in Mexico City (before the flu, I assure you). Mexico City isn't exactly what I expected it to be, though I'm not entirely sure what I expected in the first place. I suppose I imagined DF to be a bit gruffer than what I encountered, but I'm sure those parts of the city exist.

Michael and I arrived in the early afternoon and took a cramped subway ride to the Zocalo/Cathedral in the heart of downtown Mexico City. I have to say, I'm rather impressed by DF's subway system because, unlike the Queretaro buses, the trains come often and reliably.



Even though DF emptied because of the Semana Santa vacations, a good amount of people were still in and around the cathedral and Zocalo area. Given that Easter Sunday was just around the corner at this point, a lot of religious ceremonies were going on, both indigenous and catholic. Of course, tons of people flocked into the Cathedral for a good solid pray at the altar, but outside the Cathedral, there were dancers in indigenous garb cleansing people with incense smoke.



Definitely an interesting contrast. Just next to the Cathedral lie the ruins of the Templo Mayor (Great Temple) of the Aztec civilization in the city of Tenochtitlan. Though not nearly as impressive as the ruins of Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza, or Palenque, Templo Mayor has a certain charm and an incredible history given it's importance in the Aztec capital hundreds of years ago.



The above sculpture is a replica of the one found in the 1970s (? I'm a little fuzzy on the date) that led to the excavation of these beautiful ruins of a religious Aztec temple that was used for the most important rituals in the Mexica culture, like human sacrifice!



Well, I was hoping to finish off the rest of Mexico City this evening, but I must go take care of some family business. Tomorrow I'll be back to finish the rest. Until then, take care!

Kaitie