Downtown

Hello!

I had a fun weekend. On Friday, my friend Monika and I went downtown because she had to do some homework and find a few stores to write about. We had a blast! To get there we took a bus from school. The bus system here is actually really nice. At first I was afraid of it because I didn't understand how it worked. There isn't a timetable or anything, and I have yet to see a printed out bus route brochure or anything. But it is really easy! The busses just sort of come whenever. There are a few of the same route driving around, so they come often and you never have to wait for more than 10 minutes. It works for Mexican culture very well I think because time is not as linear as we see it. It is more of a "guideline". Which is why they have to be very strict with the University classes. If you are more than five minutes late, you get an absence and with 4 absences, you fail the class! This makes sure the students know to be there on time.

Anyways, the busses. The routes are labeled by a variety of letters, numbers, colors and symbols. For example, to get from my house to downtown, I can take bus 6, 47, 37, 5, F, or the cross. Each bus has its "label" prominently displayed in the front window. It also has all the neighborhoods/ important places displayed as well, so you don't really even have to know the routes. So bus number 6 (the most useful to me!) passes by the church two blocks from my houses. Then it passes through my neighborhood (hercules), then by the arcos, then by el tanque, then by santa cruz, then by the market and then through a few more neighborhoods to finally return to Hercules. It is really easy to take and the drivers are really nice. There aren't really bus stops, so you just flag it down from the sidewalk, and they always stop for you, and drop you off wherever you want too! and it is only 6.50 pesos, so like 50 cents.

On Saturday my friend Jenna and I met up at a starbucks halfway between our houses to do homework. We have our first partial exams coming up, which means more than a 1/4 done because there are three partial exams and one final at the end! It was really funny to be at starbucks in Mexico. The menu was the same, except the "tall" size was called alto, which means tall in Spanish. That night, I watched Despicable Me in Spanish with my host brothers. It was called Mi villano favorito, or my favorite villain, haha. I had bought it at the market without thinking about how it wasn't out of theaters yet... so it was illegal. Whoops!

Today I studied a lot for my exam. Then Jenna and I met up again downtown just to take a break and hang out. We came across this awesome market place selling handmade products for really cheap! It was so awesome. We had a blast.

So yeah, that was my weekend in a nutshell! I had a good time and got to explore downtown a little more : )