This past weekend was pretty nice. Thursday I went again to my favorite restaurant here in DF, Oro y Azul. It's on the insanely huge UNAM campus and serves authentic Mexican dishes gourmet style for very low prices. After class on Thursday nights, many students in my program go to a bar near campus, Toros y Burros. I busted out some sick moves on the dance floor. Of course, me and my mexican amiga Ale got into a fight with the Viene Vienes. These have to be some of the worst people on Earth. They stand in the street and try to act as valets for street parking. They are all over Mexico, and if you don't pay them their extortion, it's very common for them to scratch your car, etc. Of course the lazy and corrupt police do nothing to stop their illegal jobs. Such is Mexico. Ale is in all my classes and we only speak in English together, in class she's my translator when I need it (in a way, I guess I'm a special needs student here).
I'm becoming better friends with the 5 other people in my house, and there's other exchange students that live in a house right by mine, so a bunch of us went to a party around here Friday night (after my customary Friday night in Mexico / Saturday afternoon in Korea Skype chat with my NPU golfing buddy Jon Holt in Korea).
I spent most of Saturday translating a paper from Spanish to English for my advisor. Extremely easy, but also extremely boring (he is a nice guy though). Saturday night I went to a BBQ to welcome the new Fulbright Scholars to Mexico City. The party was in the Roma colonia, north in the city, fairly close to the previously mentioned Condesa, the best area in town for nightlife. I saw my fellow North Parker Riley Clark there, he just moved here and is living in that neighborhood. For the next year, as part of the Fulbright program, he'll be working at a conservation agency in DF. I also met a cool guy named Kendall, he's part of the program, from Duke and is very proud of Duke being named the no. 2 douchiest college in America (they would be number one but GQ didn't feel it's right to name Duke number one in anything). I'm planning on spending the next year trying to convince him to not go back to America to work for a consulting firm where he has a job waiting (I don't miss Accenture one bit).
Sunday was relaxing as normal. I went to Union Church, the English speaking church I've been going to for a few weeks. It's a mix of Americans, Jamaicans, workers from the African embassies, and many Mexicans. It's in a beautiful (and rich) neighborhood, in the central-west part of town, Lomas de Chapultepec, and the church has been an English church there since the 1870s. There's about 100 people there evey week and they've been very nice. Sunday night I went and saw Bandslam a movie I'm guessing many people haven't heard of. It's a high school comedy, a group of kids form a band to enter a competition; very similar to a 1980s John Cusack and definitely good. When I got into the theatre, I was the only one there, but another American soon entered. Frank was his name. Frank is from Michigan. Frank works at the Embassy. Frank has worked for the State Department in many parts of Latin America. Frank enjoyed the movie like I did. Frank gave me his card in case I ever need anything from the embassy. Frank is a very nice guy.
This is lining up to be another normal week, classes at night. I'm still looking for some type of job to do during the day, I've been talking with a few people and been applying some places, so I'm sure something good will come soon.
If you want a good idea of Mexico City life, I definitely recommend reading David Lida's blog. He is an American journalist that has been here for about 20 years, and his blog does a really good job capturing some funny and interesting parts of living here in DF.
A good local paper (in Spanish) to read is El Universal. The town also has an English-language daily I recommend, The News. Check me out at www.twitter.com/vikingdrewby
I miss everyone back in the US and I hope you're doing well.
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