May 17, 2011
– Hola de Mexico, Distrito Federal, Yellow Jacket Fans!
As an Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (Spanish) major in addition to biology, I am required to study abroad in an immersion program. I mean, I am not complaining, because over the summer I will get to live in Mexico Distrito Federal (Mexico City), Cuzco, Peru, and Costa Rica. In Mexico, DF and Cuzco I will be taking classes and living with families in addition to seeing the country. Costa Rica is just a quick trip to practice what I’ve been working on all summer. While abroad, I’ll be sending weekly up dates on my travels and adventures for the RamblinWreck website in addition to keeping my daily blog (gtraviswagner.wordpress.com).
Wagner poses in front of the Templo Mayor |
I’ve been in Mexico, DF for one week and I am still blown away by this city. It is the world’s largest, and has such much rich culture and history. Everyday I’ve gone to someplace new to explore and site see, and even if I continued, I still couldn’t do everything.
We’ve visited the Pyramids at Teotihuacan, El Templo Mayor (center of Tenochtitlan-Mexica, aka the Aztec Empire), the house of Frida Kahlo, the basilica of Lady Guadalupe, the Museum of Anthropology, and more throughout the city.
Despite the Museum of Anthropology being world famous, my favorite adventure has been El Templo Mayor. Getting to walk through the ruins (especially after spending so much time in class learning about them) was so cool. And it is right next to the cathedral of the city, which makes for some really awesome pictures. It’s sad to think that the Spanish conquistadors just tore everything down when they imperialized Mexico…
In addition to sightseeing with the group, I’ve been running in the morning with Julia, a classmate. Each day we map out a new running path. The best so far has been our 8.5 mile run to El Parque Chapultepec, which is Mexico, DF’s version of Central Park. It is a gorgeous run and we have lots of runner friends in the park. I joked with Julia about bring our cameras on our runs so we could get pictures of everything (kind of like that class in Yes, Man). For example, on one of our runs, we saw a person that used a bus as their porch. This is only more impressive seeing as it was someone that lived on the third floor of an apartment… tell me that wouldn’t be a cool picture!
Every day when I wake up, I know that a new adventure is in store. As mentioned above, if you’re interested in finding our more about each of them, follow my blog (gtraviswagner.wordpress.com) or feel free to email me (gtraviswagner@gmail.com).
GO JACKETS!
Glenn Travis Wagner
Men’s Swimming and Diving- 2011
