City within a city

As the number of cars sounding their horns increased, so did the realisation that we were in the Mexican urban jungle. No longer were cars prepared to slow down and let you cross in front of them as they had in Baja and the Yucatan.

We broke up the nasty 22 hour haul to Mexico City with two days in Vera Cruz, a bustling port city on the gulf of Mexico. It was even invaded by the American Navy to serve as a vantage point during the First World War.

Vera Cruz is pretty gritty, and although this meant that we were the only tourists, it's not a place I would go out of my way to visit. The central plaza was teeming with activity at night time, and we were pleased to watch a traditional dance performance - although I couldn't tell if it were uniquely Mexican or a variation on the flamenco Spanish style.

Everyone was clad in traditional gear, the guys with ponchos, sombreros, cravates and even cutlasses, while the women had big full skirts and twirled around a lot.

The bus trip to the capital was a steep climb into the mountains - Mexico City is 2km altitude while Vera Cruz is port side. Dusk fell as we descended into the valley that is home to the city. The setting sun illuminated the slightly foggy sky surrounding the city lights, which stretched as far as the eye can see in every direction.

We have not really checked out the centre of town yet as we are staying in a borough about 10km south of the city, near the university where we are going to be studying. We took a walk around the enormous campus yesterday, which is a city within a city - home to 280,000 students, it has its own free bus network, hospital with emergency department and acres and acres of sporting grounds and recreational areas. A slightly shabbier version than what I would expect an Ivy League university to look like.

Campus was pretty dead because it was still technically holidays, but the following day it was much busier and had been opened up to cars. We enrolled in the foreign language institute, a relatively straightforward process but it proved to be a real test of my Spanish skills, as nobody spoke English.

We turned up in the morning and straightaway had to sit an oral exam. Adam's lasted long enough for them to determine he couldn't understand a word he was saying so he was placed in the beginners' class. I had to then sit a placement exam with multiple choice questions and a written section - the first exam I have done in about 9 years.

Besides the intensive three-hour per day Spanish course, we also got to pick some electives. Adam's are all language-related, while I chose Mexican history and cinematography - both of which are to be conducted in Spanish.

Even though we typed our own details into the computer system, the admin people still managed to stuff our names up. From now on I will be known as Louisa Kate Burgess and Adam will be Benjamin Adam Homan. They must have decided our middle names are easier to pronounce in Spanish than our given names!

It was really tiring having all of these conversations in Spanish, particularly when we visited the housing office to try and arrange accommodation. The lady there gave us this massive list with people to call about apartments and also families where you could rent rooms on their property separate to their house. I called a bunch of them to ask if I could see the room, which was really tiring - talking on the phone in another language is much harder than speaking to someone in person! 

But the biggest bureaucratic hurdle lay in trying to gain access to the swimming pool. We had to get three forms from our faculty, take one to the central admin and pay a processing fee, then visit the medical centre to sit a medical examination, before taking all of the documentation to the swimming centre and being issued with a sports card. We got to step three before being waved away and told to return in a week's time. So for now we will have to be content with gazing at the pool rather than swimming in it.