Campion Celebrity 2012

Today was attempt #2 at iceskating and fortunately -- after a few hours of wait time -- we were successful! We got to the Zócalo around noon and waited in line for about an hour to get our bracelet and time -- and the first available time wasn't until 5:30pm! (It was strange waiting in line for iceskating in December and yet the sun was so strong I got a bit sunburned!) 

So we decided to stay in the area. We toured inside the National Palace (Palacio Nacional), which includes the President's office, the Federal Treasury and the National Archives. There's a museum with the various versions of the Mexican flag and historical maps/paintings/artifacts from the Spanish conquest to present day.  We also saw the Hall of Presidents, with the various presidential portraits, and the president's office, dining room and other (very extravagant) rooms. Apparently it was not open previously to the public, but was opened this year for the bicentennial. 

I couldn't take pictures in most of the rooms, but did get these shots: 

From there, we went for food. After waiting for about an hour before finally getting soup and dirty silverware, we gave up and grabbed McDonalds to eat in line for SKATING!

Saturday we went to Anahuacalli, a museum designed by Diego Rivera. "Anahuacalli" means "house around of water" in Nahuatl. 

Rivera was fascinated by pre-hispanic culture and designed this museum to display his collection, which includes articles from almost every indigenous civilization Mexico's history. Rivera died before the museum was completed, so Juan O'Gorman (ie: architect of UNAM Biblioteca Central and Rivera's Studio/House in San Angel), Heriberto Pagelson and Rivera's daughter, Ruth (Rivera was married 4 times) finished the museum. 

It's built out of volcanic rock and designed like a pyramid. There are different rooms dedicated to various indigenous gods. The ground floor is very dark, but as you go up, each floor gets progressively brighter until you reach the terrace.

Message from Diego Rivera: "Devuelvo al pueblo lo que de la herencia artistica de sus ancestros pude rescatar" -- I am giving back to the people what I could recover of the artistic heritage of their ancestors. 

Fun fact: Did you know that Diego Rivera's full name was 

This morning I attended a welcome/changing of coordinators gathering for the Latin American Studies program. It was scheduled to start at 9:30, but started around 10:00. Nothing too earth-shattering, though some of the student feedback at the end was interesting -- ranging from praise to criticism of the program. 

I left early to go to class, but I guess the professor must have been there too (and for some meeting afterward) because he never showed. I talked for a while with some of the other students in the class, so it was still worthwhile in that sense. Apparently it's an undergrad class I'm auditing, but the information will be useful nonetheless. 

Afterward I ran into a friend I met during registration and he played tourguide for the afternoon. He did his undergrad, master's and is now in the process of his doctorate at the UNAM and works at Colegio de Mexico (or Colmex, another University in Mexico City) so is a wealth of information. He gave me the tour of the Humanities building tower, which has various research centers, libraries, offices, etc I'll need to know about and introduced me to various professors.

Below: a (not so great) photo of the Estadio Olimpico, home of the 1968 Olympics and the Pumas, UNAM's futbol (soccer) team. The artwork on the stadium is by Diego Rivera.