My friend Muhsinah celebrated her birthday yesterday! It was a pretty fun night, and everyone enjoyed themselves. The first comical event, however, took place in the morning. Our program director brings cake to school so we can all celebrate together (by the way, it is AMAZING cake with strawberries in the middle). Well, Mexicans have a tradition that you have to stick your face in the cake if it's your birthday! We were all surprised at it, but it turned out to be a perfect picture moment:
It was pretty funny. But back to that night, we celebrated her birthday at Zilch first, and then we moved on to Boga. One of our friends works at Boga and was able to give Muhsinah a special celebration, with champagne and all. It was nice, and I had a good time.
I haven't written since Thursday...and that's because I've been sooo busy!!! Really, nothing happened on Friday. It was the last day of class for the week, and we had to rest for our first excursion. Having to wake up at 5:00 in the morning usually isn't that hard for me to do, but I just happened to sleep through my first 2 alarms. We had to meet at 5:45, and I woke up at 5:30. We were supposed to leave at 5:35...
Definitely had to rush and didn't get to prepare myself like
I wanted to, but we made the bus and finally got there with the rest of the group. The bus ride lasted 4 and a half hours! I felt like I was back in high school driving to a marching band competition (ha, did I just admit that...?). We finally arrived and set out to climb the pyramids at Teotihuacan. The 2 main pryamids are El Piramide del Sol and El Piramide de la Luna. It was so beautiful there, and it actually wasn't nearly as difficult to climb to the top as we thought!
El Piramide del Sol
El Piramide de la Luna
El Piramide de la Luna behind me
While at Teotihuacan, I bought so many souvenirs for my friends and family and spent at least 500-600 pesos! Our director of the program told us that everything is cheaper there, so I just went ahead and bought almost everything I needed. It's good to have most of that finished already.
After the bus ride back to the city, we decided to go out to eat at a place called Santo Cafe. It's a really nice place, and you can eat on the bridge that overlooks the street. I love it. Here are some pictures:
View from the bridge outside, where we sat
Side of the restaurant, looking into the windows
All the girls...you can see the effect the sun had on us at Teotihuacan. ha
After that, we went out to Zilch and Boga again. There was a really good band who came to perform at Zilch, and then we went to Boga to try and practice salsa dancing. It didn't work out too well, but we had a good time as always.
Well, first we had our ISA Welcome Party at the office. We really didn't do too much besides talk with each other and eat some appetizers and dessert. The best part though was the mariachi band that came and played for us. Here's a clip of their performance:
Ok, party number 2. My professor for my music class had a get-together at his house to watch the soccer game (except we didn't watch the game). We spent most of our time taking pictures since the view from his house was so pretty! I felt bad for the guys because we took a group picture of all of the girls. Of course, we all wanted the picture to be taken with our own camera. It took so long to take the picture that it felt like we were going to prom again!! Here it is:
I loved the house. It was so beautiful, and I absolutely loved the decorations. Here is a photo of his stairs up to the house: Now for the best party. Party number 3. The students who have been here for a semester told us that there was going to be a toga party at this place called Boga. A huge group of us ended up going...we bought fabric, ribbon, and everything we needed for our togas. When we got to Boga, no one was wearing a toga!!! We felt so dumb and actually though it might have been a prank that the semester students played on us! Luckily, some more people came and were wearing togas (they were much better than ours though). We had so much fun last night. We did the Soulja Boy dance when the song came on...and broadcasted to everyone that we were Americans. Ha. Everyone was looking at us like we were crazy because they didn't understand what we were doing.
Everyone dances downstairs, but there's another part to Boga on the roof. Upstairs, it's more like a lounge. They play house music, there's a nice bar and TV, and there are plenty of couches, chairs, and tables for everyone to sit on. It was so nice!!! I loved spending time upstairs.
We stayed out until about 2, and when I came home I couldn't fall asleep. It's been awhile since I've gone out and had that much fun. Everything was so laidback, and we were just enjoying our time. there. It was nice to go out and have a different, better experience than what I have at home or at school at parties and clubs I go to with my friends. It's just a completely different atmosphere and we really enjoyed ourselves.
Later this afternoon, some of the girls and I are going to "people-watch" at Teatro Juarez. It's sure to be interesting! It's possible that I might have some really interesting pictures after that!
Most times, I wish things were different in my life. Sometimes I wish things were easier or happier. The reality of it all is that nothing is guaranteed to play out the way I'd prefer it to. So I try to find the best in everything - and everyone.
