Officially Humbled

Well, I can finally sit down to write, since my head has stopped spinning (at least temporarily). I actually need to write, and get my Mexico City story out, so I can move on. Anyone who is reading this will have to pardon the long post, because I´ve got some stuff to say.
Wow. I just got to Guanajuato this afternoon, and my body is finally starting to relax a little bit.
I got to Mexico City on early Tuesday evening, and immediately upon landing realized the arrogance/stupidity of coming to this city with no plan whatsoever. I read a bit on the plane of where I might want to go, and in horrible Spanish asked my cab driver to take me to the Colonia Condesa. He gave me a strange look and began to ask me questions, which I of course did not understand. This is when I began to understand I possibly should have prepared just a bit more. I don´t know quite how it happened, but somehow I ended up, at his suggestion, at this kind of creepy hotel in some random part of town. After dropping my bag and taking a deep breath, I decided to go for a little walk. Again the choice to not prepare began to be questioned in my mind, as I wandered around a neighborhood fully of ONLY men, no women, who all stared and muttered at me. Needless to say I headed back to the hotel quickly, and, exhausted, fell into a crazy sleep where I dreamt about being lost and having everything stolen from me. I got up and decided I had to leave creepy creepy land, and so I packed my bag and tried to decide where to go.
I looked through my little book and ended up at this hostel over in the Historic Central District, right off the zocalo. It was much nicer over in this area of town, and I met a couple of people who were traveling. I had read about some of the big sights of Mexico City, like the Anthropology museum and the cathedrals, and the Frida Kahlo museum, all of which sounded interesting. But while I was there, I was just paralyzed. I´m sure some of you may have thought about this, but if not: imagine being in a city three times the size of New York, and then not knowing the language. Every time I tried to do something, it was beyond hard. I tried to find a bookstore, figuring it would probably be wise to pick up a Spanish dictionary. I wandered around trying in vain to follow directions for a solid two hours, and still wasn´t successful. It was beyond frustrating, and, as mentioned in the title, incredibly humbling. The thing about it is that I had heard all about how dangerous Mexico City was, and I couldn´t leave that information behind. It didn´t seem that dangerous, yet it definitely didn´t seem safe either. I couldn´t tell what the hell was going on, because I didn´t know what anyone was talking about...you get the idea.
I knew I needed to figure out where to go, but my mind couldn´t even think and my body was so tense and nervous. I kept being constantly worried about being taken advantage of in some way, and the men were so pushy, I walked around with my eyes down...this is obviously not my usual state of being, and it felt really wrong. It just wasn´t working in Mexico City for me.
This morning, just knowing I needed to leave, I got on a bus for Guanajuato. It was only after getting away that I really realized how hard that experience was. But it was just that, an experience, and a good one to have at the beginning of this trip. I knew it wasn´t for me there, yet I was stuck in somehow proving I could do it. Whateva. Enough of that. This trip is about doing what feels right, not being stuck in what I should do. I´ll get my Mexican history a different way.

On a million times brighter note, this city is beautifully picturesque and lovely. Tonight I wandered the (safe) streets, which were jam packed with people having a great time. The zocalo is goregeous and pristine, and when I got there, there was a 12 piece horn band playing in the little gazebo, in matching jackets. Tonight a whole different band started in front of the theater, and then wound all throughout the town. It´s an old colonial town with streets that are crazy and twisty and immediately get you lost. There was probably 200 people, and we´d wander up a street, and then through an alleyway so narrow that all of us had to go single file. It would open up into a big courtyard, and everyone would spread out and dance. I danced with a whole bunch of little kids, who were so cute. At the end we stopped at this little plaza with stone steps and everyone sat down for one final song. This group of about 15 teenagers wandered by; kids who would normally be way too cool to be involved in some traditional singing. They all stopped and put their arms around each other and were singing along. Everyone was singing (except me-I just hummed). I thought it was so great to see all of these different people of all ages interacting and joining together in a way that would be really uncommon to see at home. Everyone was so friendly and smiling...it was awesome.

Tomorrow I am going to make some (loose) plans, and then have some fun here. I think tomorrow I´m going to attempt to go out salsa dancing. We´ll see how that goes...

Lots of love and kisses,

Kira