I'm officially a world traveler. Britt and I spent a week in August adventuring all over Mexico City with Mom and Dad. While the adventures were fun I was just happy to have a week spending time with Midge and the parents. Some of the best moments of the week were just funny things Mom and Dad said.
Ben dropped me off at the Dallas airport Saturday afternoon. Britt's flight from Portland had a little layover in Dallas so we met up there and flew to Mexico together. It was the first international flight for both of us so we were new to the immigration and customs protocols, but we made it through without any problem. It only took a few encounters with customs people for me to be SUPER excited to be in a Spanish speaking country and then it got even better as we see the most adorable balloon and sign sticking up above a large group of people.
 |
| Heading to MEXICO!! |
 |
| Look at Mom's adorable hands holding that in the air so we can see it! Tears. |
 |
| Follow the Shells Home |
After getting picked up by Mom and Dad at the airport we headed home and had a fun night in. We used the night to get settled and plan the week again. Midge also used that night to get acquainted with Dad's cookie supply. The parent's didn't take long to get in some zingers. As Midge is pulling out literally every box of cookies to try a bit of each option Mom says, "Well I guess we didn't need to say eat anything you want." Soon after this incident Dad starts telling us about how his bikes in the exercise room have been vandalized. He told us that he let the front desk know about it, but he wasn't satisfied with their response so he's been "patrolling the area." He'll look at the exercise room when he leaves in the morning and again when he comes back from work, so at least he could tell them when the culprit is striking. Classic! So yes, everyone was in fine form.
Sunday was a chill day as well. I went to Mom and Dad's ward. A cute little thing I learned while leaving to go to church with Mom and Dad. As we were leaving Dad said, "Oh sweetheart, kiss," and they kissed before leaving together. I asked what that was about and they said because they never leave each other anymore they don't get to kiss goodbye. So now they kiss as they leave together. Hilarious and adorable. It was fun going to church in Spanish again. That night we had a potluck on the roof with all the other senior missionaries in the building. That's right, on the roof. These senior missionaries are pretty crazy! Also we thoroughly enjoyed that all the missionaries checking in with Dad and his bike situation. It's the talk of the town!!
Our real adventures started bright and early on Monday morning. Our driver, Ezra, arrived for us at 7 am and we headed off to Teotihuacan. We had heard that Ezra was a character from quite a few people, but we had no idea.Within just a few minutes he told us he thinks once people are of a certain age and still in a single ward they should just put them in a room, turn off the lights, and let them do what they will. Hahahaha! Oh Ezra. When we arrived at the pyramids Ezra acted as our unofficial tour guide. Britt and I enjoyed listening to Ezra while slyly trying to read the sign next to whatever he was talking about just to see if it said anything remotely close to what he was saying. The trick was to not let him see you reading it or he'd try and change his story a little bit. Ezra also came in handy when dealing with the billions of people trying to sell you stuff. We got there pretty early in the day so for a while we were the only people in our area so all the people would try and get us to buy things. Since it was our first day I felt awkward having to try and turn them all down, but Ezra did it very well. He was very polite about it and handled it well. (After a week of being a tourist in Mexico City I got a lot better at telling people no thank you.) The pyramids were super fun to see! I'm not huge on heights so I decided to just climb the Sun. Even though it is the taller one it's stairs aren't as steep as the moon so it looked much less threatening. Ezra and Mom waited near the bottom for us as Midge and I climbed to the top. We took a few pictures, enjoyed the view, Britt tried to kill herself, and then we headed back down.
 |
| Mom and I waiting for Midge to climb the Moon |
 |
| Life's lonely at the top. |
 |
| I call this look the "I'm a tourist" |
 |
Where have I seen this before?
 |
| Oh yeah...(couldn't get through a blog post without a little bit of Ben thrown in there) :) |
|
On our way down this tour guide was walking down the steps in front of us. He's obviously walked those step a thousand times and was kind of lollygagging. I, of course, was gripping the rope that serves as a hand rail with all my might. As I'm passing by him all the sudden he slips. I reach out to grab him thinking no one is dying on my watch! After he steadies himself we kind of laugh it off and I tell him to be careful. A few minutes later that same guy passes by Britt and thinking she is me starts talking to her in Spanish. She says she understood enough to know he was referring to the almost fall and laughed along with him. Oh! Another great thing about this trip was Britt's constant desire to buy a jaguar. Mom had told her Rich had purchased one for like $100 pesos or something like that. I don't remember the numbers now. Basically a heck of a lot cheaper than any were being sold for. Most of the sellers tell them that must have been one of the smaller jaguars, but Mom thought it was a big one. So every time we passed someone selling jaguars (which was literally everyone) Britt made Mom stop and ask. (I refused to help with the bartering for moral reasons....okay I just hate bartering. When I did finally buy something I bought it for full price reasoning that I have a much easier life than that lady, I can let her rip me off a few dollars.) When we came down from the Sun we passed other vendors and again Britt was trying to get a dang jaguar. Ezra was there this time as well which helped get the price a little lower, but eventually it was midge just saying, "Two hundred," that got the guy to give it to her for two hundred pesos. A genius negotiator that one. ;)
After the pyramids we went to see the cathedral that's falling down and the new cathedral that's next to it and the other cathedral that's up the long hill next to it. I want to say they are all called the Cathedral of Guadalupe...but I'm not sure.
After those cathedrals we headed to our own, the temple. It was technically closed, but Ezra knows people and just yelled out the window to the security guards and they let us in haha. We walked around the visitors center for a bit and then called it a day. It may not sound like a long day, but when you are spending hours in the car in horrific traffic every day is a long day. We were said to see Ezra go...it was nice having a tour guide, but we bid farewell and prepared our selves for uber driver after uber driver.
Tuesday we spent a GOOD amount of time at the Frida Kahlo museum (and Mom was still calling her Frida Karoll by the end.) Her museum was cool, she had a very difficult life that I never knew about. Really all I knew about her was the eyebrow when I went in that place. Oh! Also, when we were waiting in line outside we met this Australian couple who had been traveling for like 5 months. When they heard I lived in Texas the dude was like...so is it really like it shows on Friday Night Lights? He wanted to know if we really were super crazy about high school football. I told him unfortunately, high school football is not a part of my every day life.
 |
| Frida and Diego |
 |
| The Blue House |
After Frida we went adventuring and found somewhere to eat. I used my amazing map skills and got us there walking. Also, if you are ever walking in a touristy part of town be prepared for a thousand taxi drivers to yell, "Taxi!" as you walk by them. Britt had read good things about this restaurant. When we got there the dude asked for IDs, but let us in anyways when we told him we didn't have them. Apparently that's just keeping up appearances. Midge LOVED her tacos that she ordered and Mom watched in horror as she poured spicy salsa all over them and ate the spices pepper that came on the side. Midge and spice have an interesting relationship. It was entertaining watching her talk back to the salsa, "Okay, okay, I see you!" After the restaurant we went to an artisan market where every booth is basically selling the same thing and you just go around to find the best prices. Possibly being aware of that the vendors really don't want you leaving their shop to look around. Mom would always make sure to never promise we were coming back, tal vez...tal vez. I mastered the art of looking, but not appearing like I was looking so I wouldn't be sucked into a shop. Once you were in you had to fight your way out. Britt found some cute things and I bought some souvenirs for my co-workers and then we headed home to a yummy dinner made by Mom. Oh, a funny little side note. In the apartment Mom and Dad live in the acoustics are a little wonky. You can basically here everything that's said in that place no matter where you are. There were multiple times during the trip that Britt and I would be talking about something and then realize, THE ACOUSTICS!
Wednesday was quite the day. All our days were fun in Mexico, but this one had its moments. By this time I was really feeling this whole transition from never venturing out to do anything to days full of venturing. It started out with a fun ride in an uber. Mom was talking to the uber driver and of course mentioned she was here as a missionary. Some of the drivers take that as their cue to stop asking questions, but he was interested. So he started asking about our beliefs and what not. Mom was fielding most the questions and I'd pop in here and there. Then he asks so are you based in the Bible? It was like an Hermana Messi switch was turned on. All the sudden this dude and I launch into like a 30 minute discussion about religion. It was a pretty good chat. He seemed more curious than interested, but who knows. Although it did end on a sad note when he asked if we (Britt and I) were like his daughters were we used to be close to our dad, but now only like being with our mom. Haha I really wasn't sure how to answer that one. Soon after that we arrived at our destination, the Anthropology Museum. Now, I can enjoy a museum usually. I just tend to enjoy it a little quicker than most. So when it had been an hour and a half and we had covered like a quarter of the museum I was a little distressed. Luckily, we agreed to only do half the museum and we were out of there in about three hours. Midge did agree that if she realized how much there was and how long it would take she would have gone a little faster through the caveman periods. We were already exhausted when we reached the cool part! Although there was one moment that had me enjoying myself. Midge, of course, was desperate for any females involved in the history. So as she came to a statue that seemed to obviously been a women's body she asked mom to read the description. As Mom translates it she start saying this represents a man who skinned woman and wore her skin as an offering to a God. There was a beat and Midge just says, "That was not what I was hoping for." It was just too good.
 |
Did we ever determine if this was real? Rich?
 |
 |
| On our way to the next activity we stopped for an Helote |
 |
| Midge quickly learned they are the best things ever |
After that we walked over to the castle. It was a bit of a jaunt, but we made it. On the way there we discovered that the wild life in the touristy areas are QUITE friendly. The squirrels were just jumping on Britt's legs like nothing! The castle was fun, the best part definitely being the places where they still had the rooms set up like they would've been in the old days and we got to look in of their lives. After the castle we were REALLY exhausted, but we were right next to the Zoo and we had to see the pandas! It would probably be like the only time we'd get to see pandas in a Zoo so we hurried over there. We were on a time crunch cause we needed to meet Dad at the house by 4:30 to head to dinner before the ballet. Our feet were tired, neither Midge and I wore great shoes for these, and I had just about had it. We finally reached the Zoo, saw the Panda, got lost for a second, and then hightailed it out of there.
We got to the apartment and collapsed. When Dad arrived I reluctantly got up and we headed off to dinner. Dinner really lifted our spirits! We went to a place that Mom and Dad had been to before. They said they had Mariachis, but when they'd been before they hadn't heard them. The Mariachis were playing when we arrived, and by the time we were seated they were singing around our table. They were super impressive! One of their guys could really sing!
Then the food came. Everyone was VERY happy with their food...except for Dad, but before you feel bad for him let me just tell you that he ordered fried chicken!! You're in Mexico Pops!! Fried chicken?! He said it was dry and def not up to KFC standards. However, the best part was when Dad was trying to get through this dry chicken breast he says, "This chicken had a big pechuga!" For those who don't know, pechuga means breast. I was dying. Never thought I'd hear Dad say that. Absolutely hilarious. Also, there was the moment when Dad asked the waiter how he leaves a tip and the waiter starts going on about well it depends on the type of service you received. If you thought it was good you can leave a certain amount...haha Dad's like no I just want to know where to write it on the receipt.
We had arrived with plenty of time before the ballet so we had some sobremesa, but still had time to kill. We walked around the square a bit, but then headed to sit around waiting for the ballet doors to open. The ballet started at 8:30 and by 8:15 the doors still hadn't opened! There were like 4 different lines that had formed by one door. We knew there was going to be a mad rush to get in and sure enough the second the door starts to open people to charge it! There was only ONE dude taking tickets and telling people where their seats were, but he ripped through those tickets like the pro his is! We were in our seats in minutes. Speaking of which, so we were seated on row A. Dad told us that as best as they could tell row A was a few rows back cause there were rows AA BB CC and DD. Nope. We were straight up front row. Luckily, it wasn't a bad thing in this type of performance and we were able to see all the dances perfectly. There was this one dance where people started coming out in giant paper mache head and on stilts. That was one moment where we weren't so keen on being up front. Midge and I feared for our lives a bit. The performance was AMAZING and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. You want to know how much Dad enjoyed it? Midge convinced him to by the DVD of the performance they were selling outside! So, the day ended on a positive note. Minus the 10 minutes of confusion where we couldn't find our uber and Britt was repeatedly telling Dad to just cancel the ride and get a new one. Ahh, good times.
Thursday was a great day. It was a day of redemption. We had killed ourselves the day before trying to see everything so we decided to have a more relaxed day and decided to go to the Zoo to give it a real walk through. Also, this time we weren't going to have food in Mom's bag so she wouldn't have to pay to leave it in a cubby. We started out taking pictures by the angel's wings then we headed over to my favorite activity of the entire trip. Paddle boats. There is a little lake by the Zoo where you can rent paddle boats. They are made for 2 or 4 people, but we figured we could just have 3 in the 4 person boat. Turns out we didn't think that through. So we manage to get in our boat and Britt and I are pedaling away in front with Mom in the back. I'm thinking this is a little more difficult than I thought it would be. Midge and I can tell that Mom seems to be struggling a little bit. She is pressing as hard as she can but the peddles go like an inch. We soon realize that when someone isn't helping pedal on the other side of the boat it's nearly impossible to push the pedal. So Midge and I take care of propelling us forward and Mom just handles steering. Throughout this whole discovering we are just cracking up. Poor Mom back there trying to contribute, but not having a chance in the world to be able to move that thing. It was seriously the most hilarious time. Every once in a while we'd hear Mom try to pedal and we'd reprimand her.
After a hilarious time on the lake we headed to the Zoo. It was quite an impressive Zoo! And most of the animals we were interested in out and about. Also, lets take a moment to appreciate the poor gazelle/deer type animals. There were SO MANY places with those dang animals and no one cared about them. They are not the animals you go to the Zoo to see. Poor guys.
 |
| Probably the favorite animal of the whole Zoo |
 |
| Can you stop King Julian?? I mean just look at him basking in the sun! |
 |
| Don't worry...the Zoo wasn't...un-bear-able :) |
 |
| This guy was in his cave and right as we walked by decided to let us check him out. Guess he can't resist the cat-walk. :) |
Friday. I honestly don't remember much about Friday. I know we went out to eat and had some super yummy churros. Other than that it's a blur. Maybe Friday was a chill day because everyone saw that I was a little worn out by all the outings. Then Saturday came and it was time to go. It was sad to say goodbye, but we left with many, many good memories. That week did make me long for the days of going to school 20 minutes from Mom and Dads house. Getting to see family whenever. Ugh. Man now I'm getting sad! This family reunion needs to come faster!
The trip home was a little stressful. By Thursday or Friday Dad was telling us about this hurricane that was headed to Texas. I knew from Ben that our area wasn't affected at all, but our flight was delayed quite a bit. Midge did miss her connecting flight, but we just took her home with us and it actually was a really fun night. We finally had a family member visit us in Texas! And even though she didn't visit of her own free will...we're counting it!
Our time in Mexico was unforgettable. Mom and Dad are just the best people in the world. It was so fun being in their little world. They are so cute, trying to do missionary work whenever they can. They would share a card or thought with every uber driver that would let them. We knew how long every uber driver had been with uber and if they'd lived in Mexico City their whole life. One night I heard Mom asking Dad if they had rated their uber drivers yet. Haha always wanting to make someones day. A good review can go a long way! At another time Mom bought Britt and I some super cute bags. When she paid full price she said, "Maybe he can buy his granddaughter something special with that." So yes, Mexico City is definitely better for having two Messerlys down there. I'll be happy to have them back in Utah, but I'm so happy that they are helping spread a little happiness in Mexico City. Much needed happiness.
