Well would you look at that. Over two months later and I realize I never posted about my amazing trip in July to Mexico City to see the love of my life!!!
Gosh, how to condense it! So I left early (we're talking EARLY) Thursday morning (7/27) for the airport. My flight was at like 7 AM, so I got to the airport a little after 5 thanks to my gracious friend Jeff for offering to drive me to the airport and not taking no for an answer! Unfortunately I had only gotten like an hour of sleep so I was not exactly in tip-top shape. I slept a little bit on the plane, then had a layover in Houston where I had a nice hearty breakfast and bloody mary. I was soooo tempted to fall asleep on the airport floor during the remaining hour of a wait I had for my flight, but because I was alone, didn't want to get my shit stolen, and wasn't entirely confident that I would wake up OR have anyone else wake me up, I forced myself to stay awake. Made it on the connecting flight. Attempted another round of a nap and caught myself snoring a couple times (I apologize to the woman sitting next to me, LOL).
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| Soooo stinkin tired! |
And then I landed in Mexico City!!
Let me tell you something. It was strange. For the first time in my life, I was a FOREIGNER! For the first time in my life, I was in a place where the first language was not English. And I was ALONE. It's very hard to put into words how vulnerable that makes you feel. Of course the signs had English translations (thank GOD) but it was still a very tentative situation for me--while at the same time being a little bit exciting. I had no idea what to expect.
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| I'm officially a Foreigner. EXTRANJERO! |
I made my way through the line up to the customs officer. She asked in Spanish if I spoke English and I said si. She stamped my docs and sent me on my way. Then I had to make my way to baggage claim. I was so nervous I was at the wrong conveyor for a while until I finally saw one of my bags! Got all my bags loaded on to the cart, and then had to make my way to security. Woman again asked me (in Spanish) if I spoke Spanish and I said no. She told me to press the button to the left (which apparently decided if you get your bags randomly searched or not, though I had no idea). The light turned green--and I was free to go!
So I walk up to the automatic doors that take me out to where everyone is waiting on arriving passengers. It took me two seconds before I saw David across the barrier thingie, waving at me to get my attention. My heart just STOPPED. I couldn't believe he was right there in front of me, right across this walkway. He started making his way toward me and I just left my baggage cart and ran up to him and hugged him as hard as I could--and the tears just started IMMEDIATELY. Every single emotion of the past year just flowed out of my body. The anxiety, the heartache, the pain, the stress, the uncertainty, the worry, the ups and downs and the love and the hate and the frustration and the joy and all of it. I knew it was the toughest year of my life. But I had no idea what I had bottled up in myself until that moment right then. We just stood there and embraced and kissed and embraced and I just cried and cried, we're talking heaving sobs and running mascara. If I could pick one moment of my entire 34 years that I could stay in forever, it would have been that one--just relieved, happy, in the arms of my soulmate, not caring about absolutely anything else in the world.
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| So happy you can't see how horribly I was crying! |
Oh and he dressed up. And he brought me a dozen roses. And he looked sooooooo damn handsome!!! *SWOON*
Great, now I'm crying just reliving that in my mind. Awesome.
Okay so his friend's brother ended up driving us back to his house where he's living. And guess what?? David's family was throwing me a surprise party!!
It was amazing. We walked in, they threw confetti, a bunch of people showed up, everyone was soooo nice and welcoming and amazing to me despite the language barrier. There was a lot of love in the room that evening. Despite running on E, I had a really really great time with them all. Amazing food, great music, dancing, and fun. I couldn't ask for a better reception!
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| There were a lot more people than are pictured here! |
At some point in the night, I just absolutely needed to sleep. I was running on fumes and I had to sleep, so David took me upstairs, gave me some earplugs, tucked me in, and then went back down to join the party while I got some much needed beauty rest!! ;-)
The remainder of my few days there consisted of morning coffee/Monster on the balcony, wandering around his neighborhood, meeting up with his family and other friends around town, exploring, going downtown CDMX to see the sights, and just enjoying being with each other all day, every day. I had the most amazing time, and I really fell in love with Mexico City. It is a beautiful, amazing place with a lot to offer. And David's neighborhood in Iztapalapa was just so unique and beautiful and I loved it! There were so many things we weren't able to do this time around, but hopefully on my next visit we are able to!
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| Morning coffee |
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| David's barrio |
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| La Michoacana! |
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| View from David's rooftop |
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| I just LOVE the colorful houses! |
Going downtown CDMX was interesting. We took public transportation, as David doesn't have a car down there. It was definitely interesting. We took a cab to a bus to the Metro, and at some point I was like...."We're still in Iztapalapa?!" Apparently it is HUGE! I had no idea. I thought it was like Brookfield, or Naperville, but no. It's more like MANHATTAN. And Mexico City as a whole is almost 1 MILLION PEOPLE MORE than NYC itself! Talk about HUGE!
But again, we got to see a lot. And I LOVED it. I cannot wait to go back and see more.
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| Monumento a la Revolución |
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| El Angel de la Independencia |
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| Zocalo |
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| Zocalo, view from the top of El Catedral |
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| Torre Latino |
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| Festival of San Martha |
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| Rollercoaster! |
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| Benitooooo! |
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| Con pulque at Rancho Loma Ancha |
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| Benito Juarez Hemicycle |
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| Palacio de Bellas Artes |
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| Mezcal! |
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| Amor |
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| Trolley ride in Coyoacan |
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| Amazing food in Coyoacan! |
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| Gorditas deliciosas! |
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| Mi amor y yo |
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And that is a somewhat condensed version of our time together in Mexico City. Needless to say, being a big city girl, I fell in love with it there. The neighborhoods have charm. It's sooo different from America but it's a beautiful kind of different. The city is huge and amazing and has so much to offer and so much to explore, I can't wait to experience it all. Now to just learn the language so that maybe if and when I do have to move down there, I can actually get around by myself!! That is the biggest obstacle I want to overcome. There is NO way I could travel this city by public transportation, not knowing the towns/city/currency/language. I have a lot to learn but I'm willing to do it.
The hardest thing, obviously, was leaving my love. David brought me all the way up to the security gate where he couldn't proceed anymore. At his words, "Well....I guess this is it" I hugged him and immediately burst into tears worse than those which I arrived with. I didn't want to leave him. And even though I knew before that moment that he was my soulmate and the one I couldn't live without, that moment only solidified it even more. I didn't want to let him go. Everything in me wanted to just say "SCREW IT" and forget going back to the States, and stay there with him, and just start all over and let everything here go. But I knew I had to go back. So we did the whole "movie-goodbye" thing where I held on to his hand until I couldn't anymore, and then I mouthed "I love you" and he mouthed it back right before I disappeared behind the glass of security. And then I just dissolved into tears again. God bless the woman in front of me who simply held out her travel pack of Kleenex so that I could take one for myself. I wanted to hug her, but I thought the situation was weird enough as it was.
I cried a lot more that day. Sitting waiting for the plane, cried (during which I almost had a moment of temporary insanity of "WHAT IF I JUST STOOD UP AND MADE A RUN FOR IT AND DAVID AND I RAN AWAY TOGETHER FOREVER"). Getting on the plane, cried. Taking off from the runway in Mexico City, cried. Checking my passport into Customs once I arrived back in America (you can see from the photo they took of me, how pissed I was to be coming home). Waiting two hours again at the Houston airport to fly back to Chicago, cried at the bar. When I finally got home, I had no tears left.
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| The only time I've ever *hated* being in America. |
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| Going "home"....even though it felt nothing like that anymore. |
Of course I had hoped to go back in September, but due to other circumstances, I had to move my trip to October. And now here we are! Five days away from getting to see him again!! Back in August when I returned, I felt like it was going to be FOREVER before I could see David again. And it has been a very, very long wait. But we're in the home stretch! And this time, I get to be there for over two weeks! *AND WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!*
Well, I hope we're getting married at least. Still working on all that mess....aaaand that should come in a future post I'm sure!
