Journey to Mexico

I have never been outside of the US. My parents have taken biking trips, Dad lived in Sweden for two years, Emily went to South Korea and Rick went to Portugal. I love listening to their stories of life outside of the US.
I go to Mexico for my first time outside of the country. I tried to remember as many things possible from the journeys today, since we will be staying inside a compound, and never emerging into the real world of Mexico, never mingling with the people of Mexico.
I have to say honestly I loved Mexico City, despite all the horrible things that can happen there, such as kidnappings, drug dealing, corrupt police officers, etc. The city was huge and clustered, many many people smashed into a small area, yet they make it work. They make it look quaint and doable. I loved the brightly painted homes, despite the fact that it would look “trashy” in everyday American neighborhoods. It was nice to see (a very small glimpse) of what life is really like in Mexico, at least in the cities. There’s little cartels everywhere, people selling their little bundles of wares. There are many stores on the ground floor, then homes up above. Then a garden on top of the building, along with a string of clothes hanging to dry. Despite all the evil seeming to lurk in dark corners, these people have found a way to live, and to enjoy life.
I feel that in the states we just want more and more stuff (I’m guilty of this), and we’re never truly grateful for what we have—we don’t even use the stuff we have til it has been fully used or served its purpose. Something “better” comes out, and we must have that product before we’re done using the one we currently have.

The food isn’t anything like the “Mexican” food we get in the states. It’s much less greasy, much simpler, but tastes just as good, or even better! (The meat….well, I never liked meat anyway. The beans and rice and tortillas were amazing.) We flew in, and got on a charter bus (we’re bundled in for a 5-6 hour ride), and halfway through the ride we stopped to eat. The place we ate at had many restaurants and stores where we could explore a bit (in very large groups) the interesting thing I found in this area was the fact you had to pay two pesos to use the bathroom.

In one of the little cute stores, I found no food or candy I recognized, except for the candy Mrs. Sullivan (my Spanish teacher from middle school) would let us try out. I saw my favorite—dried mangos covered in sugar and chili powder. The most interesting and confusing combination of tastes for the tongue. I offered some to everyone, and most of the swimmers tolerated it, two actually liked it. The one person that gagged and spat it out and flipped me off with a red teary face was none other than my coach, Greg. The teammates who witnessed this with me were almost rolling on the floor with laughter! I tried to be sympathetic, but I deemed he overacted way too much. I plan on saving a bit of the candy so mom and dad can decide for themselves whether it was worth gagging over.