Zocalo and the National Cathedral

One of my favorite TV channels in the US for those of you who don't know is the history channel. (Pawn Stars, Modern Marvels, and Axe Men... whats not to love!) Still I really do find history exciting and love exploring places like Philadelphia's historical district (with Jordan Malenke) or even the little Mercer County Historical Society (with Abbey Jones).

Well Mexico City takes it to a whole new level. Founded in 1325 it contains ancient pyramids, pre-revolutionary buildings, and modern skyscrapers.

Torre Latinoamericana - Built in 1956 it stands as the "Mexican Empire State building"
However only topping off at about 600 ft.

The first place you need to visit in DF is the Zocalo. This is the center of Mexico City housing the National Cathedral, National Palace, Federal District buildings and the Templo Mayor.

The Zocalo

Fun facts

• The Mexican Zocalo is the largest city square at 57,600 square meters
• The word "Zocalo" means plinth or base of a monument. This is because original plans for the square were to build a large monument to commemorate the Mexican Independence but plans fell through.
• Many cities around mexico use the term zocalo for a town square but the one in Mexico has a capital z Zócalo. (note the special o... it is too difficult to type this but go back and read my post again and pretend you see them)

Me and the consuelos went to the Zocalo on a Sunday and it was packed! The first building we went into was the National cathedral. 

A view from the left side 

Like I said... It was a Sunday so we were slightly rushed and I did not get to take as many pics inside as I wanted.

Here is the back alter.

The organ chamber this church had 2 organs!

Outside the church there were all these Plexiglass windows in the courtyard that people were gathered around. I looked over in one and could see ferns growing on what looked to be an Aztec temple buried right under my feet!! 

Aztec temple... you know, just under your feet.

So the funny thing that happened as I was staring at the ground is a Mexican came up to my Mexican friend Alex and asked him (in pretty good English) if his son could talk with him in English for a homework project since he needed to speak with a genuine American.  Me and Alex both laughed a lot that the man went up to alex instead of the obvious 1.98 m Gringo standing next to him jajaj. So I proceeded to talk with the kid about where I was from, why I was in mexico, and what my favorite Mexican food was.

Oh ya, and because I was 3 feet taller than this kid and was constantly bending down (like a giraffe drinking water) to understand the kid we started to attract a crowd. Why was it exciting to hear a giant person talking in broken english with this little kid??? I dont know... but hey that's mexico for you.

So the final excitement for the day was actual Aztec decedents preforming rituals and dancing outside the cathedral.

So this was a dance they preformed. I had a brief desire to join in with them believing this to be a modified version of "Cotton eyed Joe" but was reluctant after I saw their sharp obsidian knives.

I really liked this shot because you can see the natives with the church in the background.

Day F aaaa

Mexico City, the city of: corruption, pollution, crime,  drugs, end of the world, and the first destination on my short-lived mexican vacation. I have heard of every bad association Mexico City has, however, I always found it strange how every Mexican is a big fan of D.F (districto federal) and over the next 3 days DF would show me how it broke all of the stereotypes that Americans place on it.

Reforma Ave is this beautiful street lined with trees, not garbage.

The best comparison I can think of for Mexico City is if you were to combine Washington D.C with NYC.  I know first hand (along with Matt Stedjan) That there are places you DO NOT want to be in DC at 5 AM. This is probably where mexico gets its bad rap from.

Also I thought I would need one of these...

While Mexico City wasn't the cleanest place it must have improved... The same can be said about Pittsburgh. My grandfathers have both told me stories about black snow and coal dust you could wipe off your cars.


Here is some smart dude talking about it..."Mexico City has actually seen great improvement recently in terms of air pollution," says Dave Calkins, founder of the Sierra Nevada Air Quality Group and former chief of the Air Planning Branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco. "So much so that the government actually has to campaign to let everyone know that pollution is still a problem."

A street leading to the Zocalo

Lucky for me there are a lot of great Mexican families that are incredibly generous and inviting. I was fortunate enough to stay with one of my football player friends I made over summer, Alex Consuelos. (a really great family but more about them later) He lives in Tlalnepantla (try saying that 10 times fast)

Alex

The hard to pronounce city

The first night we rode on a bus with a bunch of his friends and went to a "club" in the DF. This club was one of the most shocking things I have ever seen... Straight out of the movies. 4 stories high with maybe 1,000 people rockin out... oh and a Foo Fighter cover band that made me forget I was in mexico! Bulldog cafe was a real fun time and mixed drinks for $1.50 it was pretty hard to beat.

Something that I have come to know, yet still not expect, is the incredible generosity Mexican families have down here. The next few days were filled with trips to their favorite places in DF and more on that in my next post. Something that I always find myself doing is meeting everyone's extended families... Grandmas, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. My visits always seem to correspond with some family function that leaves me an awkward foot taller than every one and usually full of great food.

Ummm are you sure that its football and not Futbol

In the preceding months before I came to Mexico after telling people what I had in store for my future, I would often  be met with a moment or two of silence and blank stare as I mentioned that I was to play football in mexico.

Now I believe most of it to be naiveness but sometimes ignorance when people would ask me if I was sure that recruited me for american football and not soccer. The medical equivalent would be to find out that your surgical doctor was actually a psychiatrist.

Regardless even I didn't realize the extent that american football was followed in Mexico. I read a really great article by a ESPN article: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/hispanicheritage2008/news/story?id=3620057

I attended my first peewee game this past week and was no where prepared for the hype and fan excitement that I experienced.

The Aztequitas our unassociated "peewee team"

The Fans and families travel VERY well. If you think that athletic parents are a little eccentric in the US you would be in for a world of surprise here in mexico.

The home stands

 

For starters there are probably 200-300 people that come to these games, however they cheer as if they were the college section at Penn State.

Don"t have a drum?? No problem! Just get yourself an empty water bottle and a big ass spoon.

Secondly, everyone has noise makers of some sort. Big drums, whistles, and flags accompany all of their loud cheers.

The final thing worth noting about "our" peewee team is that they are really bad. hahah I have been to 3 games and they lost them all. And despite the fact that I thought it was just a normal game the last opponent victory was followed by confetti and streamers thrown by their parents... 

Pachuca trip Mi Nuevo familia (part 2 of 2)

What would you do as a mother if you went into your sons room and found a huge 6'9" black dude sleeping in his bed. This is how I imagine it being for the mother of David Ramos when she ran into Ivan Ramos' bedroom to say "There is a HUGE white man in your bed" with David's response being "WHAT?!?! Oh wait... thats just Pete"

I woke up to a breakfast of epic proportions. 2 hamburgers, another sandwich, a plate full of mangos, and juice! For the rest of my stay she would insist that I was starving constantly and saw it as her personal vendetta to suppress this :)

Plans for Saturday included a pick up game of football with David's old team... pick up in mexico includes all your pads...

So because I was a foot taller than most of the other players I decided to play sin pads. All was fine until I created a trick play where I was thrown the ball in space and lower a shoulder to deliver a pretty hard hit (of course without shoulder pads it hurt like hell the next day hahah) 

After that Davids dad took us to his aunt's house to shower. (side note: in December I sent some Gcc tee shirts to Dave but they were too big and he gave them to his dad)

Martin Reppin the GCC. 

Sunday was a real treat. I got to go to a christian church with Dave, his mom, and his other brother. A really nice pastor named Don moy (I think) presided. We sang praise music in Spanish ... then we sang TECHNO PRAISE MUSIC!! very awesome! but it went down hill after that... a visiting pastor yelled in spanish for 30 min I didnt understand anything!

These ladies did a sort of tambourine dance all the while in church

After church I was invited to lunch for Davids aunt's birthday. This is when I was 'officially' part of the Ramos family. His mom decided to more or less adopt me as her "crazy night in the US 22 years ago" to account for my size. But i think that most people agreed that me and abuelita looked the most alike.

 My tialety, mama de mexico, abuelita, y mi tia de cumpleanos 

Mi hermanos!

As a whole the trip would have been nothing without the new loving family I found in mexico :)

Pachuca trip Lucha Libre (part 1 of 2)

To fully tell the story of my past weekend I need to go back to December 2010. This is when I first became friends with David Martin Lugo Ramos (yes everyone has a lot of names down here) He was a Mexican who added me on facebook because he saw my name listed for the Tazon de Estrellas team USA.  Over the course of a few months we kept in contact but I have never actually met him or even seen him other than his facebook page.

Finally this weekend I decide to voyage to the state of Hildalgo to meet this David. (mind you this is all with the hope that David is indeed this nice young Mexican football player and not a member from La M on a 6 mo. kidnapping operation)

The first big test comes when I arrive in Pachuca, Hildalgo at a bus station with no cell phone and no david in sight. Luckily I found a guy and convinced him to lend me his. David was 3 min from the station and his dad was going to take us to a lucha libre match.

LUCHA LIBRE: this event of controlled chaos may be enough to make certain "grovers" cry. To me it was the most entertaining I have experienced in mexico yet. The rules for the match are.... there are no rules(which in turn violates the fact that there are no rules) anyways highlights from the match include: Chico chef (the wrestler with a butcher apron who was short and fat) Marco (tall american who was my 'cousin') the one legged wrestler (not lying), and receiving honorable mentions: hot bimbos, Rey Misterio's son, and a ref who was bald but insisted on fake combing his hair.

I think all the other Mexicans in the stadium were taking pictures of me as well

Me and the Famous Chico Chef

Rey Misterio's son... and ya a guy with only one leg!

Hottie!

Me and Dave in our Luchador masks

At the match you can yell WHATEVER you want at the wrestlers and then they yell back. People also threw limons. The night ended with me pretending one of the white wrestlers was my cousin and almost getting let in to the dressing room. After the match we went back to his house and I had a chance to sleep in the first bed in mexico that my feet didn't hang off of. :)

Stay tuned for the story of how I now have 3 houses in mexico!

Are you ready for some football

So finally a post about the actual reason I am down here... Football.

First week: relearn all of the basic football skills. Things are very different here, we take drop steps on our reach blocks and always use "double under's" which appears as if we are trying to do bicep curls with the Dline. I was so out of breath because of the altitude that I would need to take a knee at random times to catch my breath. Not to mention everyone is yelling in Spanish.

Second week:  I can breath YAY!!! I begin to recognize certain phrases such as Cambio, Mismo, Dereche and so on. Feel much more like a football player. Had a bit of humble pie being placed on the 3rd string for the first time since 9th grade.

Third week: brings us up to the present time. My form is not perfect but I am finally getting the ideas and concepts of my new team. This weekend we had a passing scrimmage and I went 12 for 15 with 5 pancakes. It really renewed some football spirit actually getting to hit some people.  Here are 2 pics I was able to screen shot from film.

I threw it on the GROUND!!

The easy life...

Well today me and my "gringo" friend are practically laughing at everything... I mean we were merely walking and a bird flew in front of us and we were nearly brought to the floor with laughter. Why??? because EVERYTHING is so much more difficult in Mexico.

In America, if you want something, you just simply get in your car drive to a store and get it. Cant find it??? simply ask the person at the store and they will respond with one of these simple results: Yes we have it, No we dont, Yes it is in this department, or I do not know let me ask my manager. If it was only the same in Mexico....

No it goes a little something like this: quiero... I want oh wait how do you say? (commence 10 min pantomiming to try and find what the word is) ask again in decent spanish. Que? tu quieres hielo? SI QUIERO HIELO!(commence 5 min conversation among friends in whispered spanish) tienemos helado. Ok si gracias... Go in wanting Ice leave with Ice cream. jajaj

Here is a little list of things that JUST WORK in America:
Buses: a great mode of transportation here at its low cost however you sacrifice your comfort alongside willingness to be on time
Roads: Down here they place mountains in the middle of the roads... they call them speed bumps (I call them stop signs)
Birds: they take off like freakin helicopters and nearly hit you. It could be possible to grab them because they are so dumb
Food: Ketchup on pizza, pigskin on tacos in the US you know you get exactly what you order, here its a surprise.

If I were to write a list of things I like about Mexico it would be nearly endless. Its the little things that you have to laugh off. But when I return to the US it will be these little things I appreciate much more.