Every thursday is field trip day here. It gives the students a chance to see different parts of the state and it gives the staff who stay at the school a chance to breathe a little. Today, Alexis, Jessica, David (Jessica's dad) and I decided to go to Xalapa, and we were accompanied by Alex and Paula, our charlantes.
Xalapa is the capital of Veracruz. It holds the state government buildings, really nice parks, a big university and a lot more. The bus trip there was about 2 hours. They showed an arabic movie on the bus subtitled in spanish. I felt really confused, but then most of you know that movies aren't quite my speed anyway. The closer we got to the city, the hillier it was. My ears popped a lot and I couldn't hear a thing.
When we got to Xalapa, it was beautiful and hilly, it kind of reminded me of a tiny section of San Francisco (only for the terrain). We grabbed a city bus and we were on it forever, when Alex told me that we missed the downtown area. We had to get off and wait for a bus going the other way. When the bus let us off we had to walk uphill (it felt like forever) and downhill (which wasn't as easy as I had hoped either) and we finally arrived in the center of town. We were surrounded by these beautiful old buildings (and I took several pictures) but nothing was open until about 3pm, at which point we would have to return, so we only took in the external beauty.
A former student of the school, Barb, is in Xalapa right now living with a friend, so we called her to meet us for lunch. It was so nice to see her again. We ate at this little cafe (and I need to tell you that I have yet to eat inside a restaurant since I've been in Mexico. every place I go there are tables on the patio, or the wall facing the street is made of windows that are open... and who am I to say no to that?) I had tacos al pastor, which was terrific and it was SO much food that by the time we were walking again I thought I was going to puke.
We did a little shopping, some touristy gawking and spent some time in a park and then it was time to go. The trip back to Veracruz was uneventful, as was the rest of the evening. I painted my toenails and read a book :-). Tomorrow is the Mexio/Angola world cup game, so we aren't having classes (because even the teachers don't want to be there... it's that serious. By the way, we watched a bit of the last USA game, and it was really embarrassing. Yikes). If the Mexican team wins, I'm going out somewhere that night, because I imagine that the atmosphere will be incredible. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day. Thanks again for checking in! Abrazos, Tracey
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