The Beginning

I don't get to post very often, so I'm going to post late but put the date and time as the day that I'm writing about. Those of you that might actually read this will get to see multiple posts when I actually do get the opportunity to update.

---

I went up to LA with Yoontae and met up with Ben, Jullie, Umma, and Yoontae's parents to eat before we left. As we ate and drove to the airport, we were put through pure torture. Our Ummas were jansoree-ing nonstop about what to do and not to do, what we should have and should not have done, and everything else that we just hate to hear. Of course Ben and Jullie were just laughing at us the whole time, but oh well. That's love, right? Possibly because of the constant nagging from the mothers, the magnitude of my trip really didn't hit me. Even as we flew out of LAX, I felt nothing special. I fell asleep after a little bit and didn't wake up until we were about to leave. Yoontae shook me and pointed out the window and then it hit me. Seeing the lights of Mexico City before the sun rose was one of the most awe-inspiring things I've seen, and it was just the beginning of what I was going to see this upcoming year. I was so tired when I woke up in the plane, but the lights kind of shook me awake and once we walked into the terminal I felt like I could do a little exploring.

We took some time to exchange a bit of money and talk to the tourist information people and then headed to the metro. Of course, we had no idea what we were doing or where we were going, so we asked an old lady in our broken Spanish for some help. To our surprise, she told us to just follow her, which we did, and she led us to the station. Not only did she get us there, but then she directed us to the ticketing booth, waited for us as we bought our tickets (they ripped us off, as we later found out), and then took us to the metro line that we were supposed to take... even though she was taking a different one. Looking back, she really made our day and she was really an old-lady-angel sent to guide us in our time of need. We arrived in Mexico City's historical center as the sun rose, and we wandered towards the center. Unfortunately, nothing was really open this early, but we were given the opportunity to watch people open shops and head to work. We went to a few churches and eventually got too tired to go on any further so we walked into a Holiday Inn and tried to find a secluded corner to sleep in. We checked every floor with no luck, so we left and headed to another church where we sat down to rest and unintentionally fell asleep. Both Yoontae and I were awake one second and asleep the next, and we woke up about 15 minutes later and knew that we had to get more sleep. We had only slept 2 hours on the plane, and we couldn't go the whole day on those 2 hours so we took the metro back to the airport, laid down on the floor, and knocked out for nearly 3 hours.

We felt so much better, and we still had half a day until our flight left, so we took the metro again (this time we avoided getting ripped off) and we went back to the same historical center and walked around again. This time, everything was open and it was much more enjoyable since we were fully awake. We visited a museum, interesting looking buildings, monuments, and churches, taking pictures along the way. When we got hungry, we found a small but crowded restaurant on 5 de Mayo (a street), and ordered enchiladas and this carne asada dish with this sauce that tasted like Mexican yukaejang. It was delicious and cheap, the best combination you can get with food. We continued to walk around and look at the sights with the help of a tourist map we got in the morning and then took the metro back to the station closest to the airport, Panotitlan. Right outside Panotitlan there were a bunch of tents and street vendors so using the 10 of the 12 pesos we had left (about 80 cents in U.S. currency) I bought a watch since it was annoying not knowing the time. Content with our day, we headed back to the terminal, bought a deck of cards, and made up a card game we named SPEWFI (Speedy Poker Egyptian War for Idiots), a combination of 5 different games.

Already, I felt that traveling would help me grow because even after just one day I felt like I had been traveling for so long. I know that a day is not much time to change the way I think or put a lot of new ideas into my head, but even through the kindness of that one lady at the metro station I had certain expectations and prejudices put to rest. Everyone tells me, "Be careful! Don't get mugged or robbed!" but foreign places aren't all like that. Everyone's so afraid of different places, but people out here are kind and generous and there's no reason to suspect everyone of being shady. Don't be too quick to judge; so far, all I've had to do is ask for help and everyone has tried to assist me to the best of their abilities.

And only one person has ripped me off.