Tuesday morning 2:15am the alarm went off. Randy (Father in law) picked us up to go to the airport. God bless his soul. We got to the MSP airport at 3:15am for our 6:30am flight per travel advisory advice when traveling international...and what do ya know the airport won't let you go through security until 4am. Weird. I went to bed with a stuffy nose the night before but I thought that it was my terrible MN allergies. It wasn't. That 2 hours in the morning from the time I woke up to the time we settled in at the MSP airport I was getting worse and worse. AND the stinkin coffee places didn't open unil 6 so we waited. Leave it to wonderful MN Caribou to take care of me. I got to the counter and the guys could see and hear how crappy I felt. They squeezed a fresh lemon for me into a cup, added hot water and I added honey and didn't even charge me. We boarded the plane and I got a box of kleenex from the stuardess. Thank you Delta. We had a lay over in Atlanta before traveling to Mexico City. We got some breakfast and got right on the next plane. I could feel my head starting to pound and the hot cold flashes. You all know how uncomfortable airplanes are especially if you're sick. I think I slept for maybe an hour. When we got to Mexico City we had no trouble going through immigration. But when we got to baggage claim Doug got my suitcase but not our large bag with our clothes to leave in Mexico (which also had all of his clothes). We did locate it in Atlanta. That was better news than if it had made it to Mexico City and we couldn't find it. They sent it to our hotel the next afternoon. We took at taxi to our hotel, Fiesta Inn in Centro Historia. Very nice. Great service. It's right above a mall with a Starbucks, Subway and McDonalds. Lol. The Mexican people love American Culture. Actually today I saw a billboard of One Tree Hill from the WB. There are Burger Kings everywhere and The Home Depot, Office depot, Costco, walmart and many other American companies. As soon as we checked into the hotel I pretty much crashed. Doug walked to a pharmacy to get me some medicine because at this point I had a full blown fever. They had bottles of water in our room for $34 pesos. Because you don't want to drink the water. I slept while Doug went downstairs to the meet and greet for all of the Fulbrighters. The next morning I still had a fever but felt a little better so I went down for breakfast. They had a chef at an omlette station and the buffet was typical Mexican food. Chicken with peppers, sweet breads, potatoes, tortillas, different freshed squeezed juices and then also some American stuff too like waffles and cereal. I couldn't eat much, still felt woozy. The elevation here is around 7500 feet, it's enough that you have to drink a lot of water and take it easy for a while just because it makes you dizzy. The hotel accomodations are so nice. The conference rooms were right next to the dining room. I went into the welcome and introductions session with Doug then had to leave because of my unbelievable amount of snot. lol. Sorry, but it was true. I went up to the room and blogged on my Amandakeillor.blogspot.com site and then Doug came and got me for lunch. That night Doug had the opportunity to go to the American Embassy to meet the Emassador. Sadly the spouses didn't get an invitation. I finally felt ok at 8pm so I went down to the mall area and ate a Pastor Quesadilla. It's pork in a tortilla sandwich and you but salsa on it. Yummo. He had a nice time at the Embassy. He said one of the Fulbrighters fainted while the Embassador was talking. She was apparently too warm. Thursday I was feeling a lot better, still stuffed up but not bad. We had an early breakfast because we had an early departure for the Teotihuacan Ruins via bus. It was a bumpy ride but the bus was comfy. We had fun laughing with the other kids. The ruins were huge! I couldn't believe the magnitude. We had been to some temples in bolivia but these were amazing. 2 large temples, the Temple of the Sun, and of the moon. We climbed to the top of the Temple of the sun. http://www.sacred-destinations.com/mexico/teotihuacan has the history and myths behind the Temples. It was my first outing from the Hotel and wow, what an exhausting day. We decided after talking to the kids on the bus that we should all go out salsa dancing later that night. Which we did and we were SO exhausted. Totally worth going to though! Right outside of the Salsa club there was a large plaza that had many meriochi band that hounded you for money for a song. We had them sing for us. Way cool. Doug and I went home alone which made me a little nervous but we had no issues. The next morning we all went to a government building and saw some amazing wall paintings and then went to the Templo Mayor Museum. This is a museum in the center of the city next to temple ruins that some electritions discovered in 1978. It's still being uncovered and items (intact) are still being pulled from the ground. It's amazing. A temple so large that they'll never find it all as the government buildings and palaces have been built right on top of most of the ruins. Then we celebrated together back at the hotel dining room with a traditional Mexican Feast again. Only this time it was all out! So fun!
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Orientation week
Tuesday morning 2:15am the alarm went off. Randy (Father in law) picked us up to go to the airport. God bless his soul. We got to the MSP airport at 3:15am for our 6:30am flight per travel advisory advice when traveling international...and what do ya know the airport won't let you go through security until 4am. Weird. I went to bed with a stuffy nose the night before but I thought that it was my terrible MN allergies. It wasn't. That 2 hours in the morning from the time I woke up to the time we settled in at the MSP airport I was getting worse and worse. AND the stinkin coffee places didn't open unil 6 so we waited. Leave it to wonderful MN Caribou to take care of me. I got to the counter and the guys could see and hear how crappy I felt. They squeezed a fresh lemon for me into a cup, added hot water and I added honey and didn't even charge me. We boarded the plane and I got a box of kleenex from the stuardess. Thank you Delta. We had a lay over in Atlanta before traveling to Mexico City. We got some breakfast and got right on the next plane. I could feel my head starting to pound and the hot cold flashes. You all know how uncomfortable airplanes are especially if you're sick. I think I slept for maybe an hour. When we got to Mexico City we had no trouble going through immigration. But when we got to baggage claim Doug got my suitcase but not our large bag with our clothes to leave in Mexico (which also had all of his clothes). We did locate it in Atlanta. That was better news than if it had made it to Mexico City and we couldn't find it. They sent it to our hotel the next afternoon. We took at taxi to our hotel, Fiesta Inn in Centro Historia. Very nice. Great service. It's right above a mall with a Starbucks, Subway and McDonalds. Lol. The Mexican people love American Culture. Actually today I saw a billboard of One Tree Hill from the WB. There are Burger Kings everywhere and The Home Depot, Office depot, Costco, walmart and many other American companies. As soon as we checked into the hotel I pretty much crashed. Doug walked to a pharmacy to get me some medicine because at this point I had a full blown fever. They had bottles of water in our room for $34 pesos. Because you don't want to drink the water. I slept while Doug went downstairs to the meet and greet for all of the Fulbrighters. The next morning I still had a fever but felt a little better so I went down for breakfast. They had a chef at an omlette station and the buffet was typical Mexican food. Chicken with peppers, sweet breads, potatoes, tortillas, different freshed squeezed juices and then also some American stuff too like waffles and cereal. I couldn't eat much, still felt woozy. The elevation here is around 7500 feet, it's enough that you have to drink a lot of water and take it easy for a while just because it makes you dizzy. The hotel accomodations are so nice. The conference rooms were right next to the dining room. I went into the welcome and introductions session with Doug then had to leave because of my unbelievable amount of snot. lol. Sorry, but it was true. I went up to the room and blogged on my Amandakeillor.blogspot.com site and then Doug came and got me for lunch. That night Doug had the opportunity to go to the American Embassy to meet the Emassador. Sadly the spouses didn't get an invitation. I finally felt ok at 8pm so I went down to the mall area and ate a Pastor Quesadilla. It's pork in a tortilla sandwich and you but salsa on it. Yummo. He had a nice time at the Embassy. He said one of the Fulbrighters fainted while the Embassador was talking. She was apparently too warm. Thursday I was feeling a lot better, still stuffed up but not bad. We had an early breakfast because we had an early departure for the Teotihuacan Ruins via bus. It was a bumpy ride but the bus was comfy. We had fun laughing with the other kids. The ruins were huge! I couldn't believe the magnitude. We had been to some temples in bolivia but these were amazing. 2 large temples, the Temple of the Sun, and of the moon. We climbed to the top of the Temple of the sun. http://www.sacred-destinations.com/mexico/teotihuacan has the history and myths behind the Temples. It was my first outing from the Hotel and wow, what an exhausting day. We decided after talking to the kids on the bus that we should all go out salsa dancing later that night. Which we did and we were SO exhausted. Totally worth going to though! Right outside of the Salsa club there was a large plaza that had many meriochi band that hounded you for money for a song. We had them sing for us. Way cool. Doug and I went home alone which made me a little nervous but we had no issues. The next morning we all went to a government building and saw some amazing wall paintings and then went to the Templo Mayor Museum. This is a museum in the center of the city next to temple ruins that some electritions discovered in 1978. It's still being uncovered and items (intact) are still being pulled from the ground. It's amazing. A temple so large that they'll never find it all as the government buildings and palaces have been built right on top of most of the ruins. Then we celebrated together back at the hotel dining room with a traditional Mexican Feast again. Only this time it was all out! So fun!
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