Day 6 (6/7/11)

Today is the day! We leave for Mexico and won’t be back in the States until August 3rd. Nothing much happened before we left for the airport, except I got my last taste of American pizza was able to say farewell to the other interns that were leaving. Once we got to the Indianapolis airport everything went pretty well as we prepared for our first flight of the day. We only went to the wrong airline to check-in, walked through the “expert traveler” line, and I almost lost my sunglasses through security.
After our first flight we landed in Chicago as planned and had about 3 hours to wait for our next flight to Mexico City. In the Chicago airport we had a break for food and I decided to enjoy my last American meal by getting a good ole burger at Chili’s. It was quite enjoyable and I think I made the right choice for my last meal in the States. Eventually it was the moment of truth and they started boarding the plane. We all got on the plane and then they made an announcement that they would have to postpone the flight for about 1 hour. So we sat on the plane and used the time to talk and find out more about each of our teammates.
I sat by Kylee and Ashley. Andrew and Katrina sat a few rows behind us. We all talked and most of the time we were practicing our Spanish. Once the flight got going everything went very smoothly. We encountered very little to no turbulence and as we flew over Mexico we started to see all the lights from the pueblos and cities. I tried to take a picture of it but it wouldn’t really show up on my camera. I prayed for a safe arrival and we finally made our landing around 10:45pm. Once we were all in the airport we were able to get through immigration and customs with relatively no hassle. We then got some money for ourselves out of some ATMs in the airport and sat down to eat our first authentic Mexican meal in Mexico City. I’ve included a picture of the place where we got it.

Following this I was able to get in a taxi (for the first time in my life) with Andrew and Kay to get us back to the family’s home. I was excited to ride in a taxi for the first time ever, and what I experienced was very interesting. The taxi driver didn’t adhere to any speed limits most of the time so we were flying down the highways and roads. It also didn’t bother the driver that there were red lights in front of him as he casually blew through them as well. I was quite uncomfortable during this first taxi ride as we circled the winding roads in the city, but I guess it’s best to start this trip out with a bang.

The house we are staying in now is very nice. Much nicer than what I expected since the last time I was in Mexico the only house I was in had one room. I’ve included a picture of our view of Mexico City at night. I’m quite tired and it’s close to 2am now…Buenas noches Mexico!