They played the Super Bowl today in Miami (what’s up with the new name of the stadium?), and in Mexico City, we realized that the Super Bowl is becoming more and more popular. There were lots of restaurants that had parties, and even the movie theaters were cashing in on the game by showing it on their big screens.
We went to a Super Bowl party at our church. They had an “NFL Experience” type thing where they invited people to come and do different “American football” drills, competitions, and then watched the game.
We watched the game at home after hanging out a little. We watched it on our slingbox, which allowed us to watch the game and the American commercials.
American football is growing in popularity in Mexico. The NFL has done a lot to promote the game here, and of course the fact that Mark Sanchez is the starting quarterback for the Jets helps the NFL’s cause.
A while ago the Saints cheerleaders were in a local mall promoting the game in Mexico. We took a quick little video.
The NFL likes to try to promote in Mexico City on 12seconds.tv
The best place to view the volcanoes in Mexico City is from the airplane when you come in. Just above the layer of smog, you can see the tips of these two gigantic mountains covered in snow.
We’re back in Mexico after about 6 weeks of time in Florida and St. Louis. We had a great time reconnecting with family and friends as well as sharing at churches and representing Youth Ministry International at Urbana ’09.
Now we get to unpack in time to pack again. We’re moving. I’ll give you more details about that soon, but just wanted to write that we are happy to be back. So happy we celebrated by eating some real tacos last night.
There’s no better cultural experience than going to a national team’s soccer game. So, when I found out that “El Tri,” the other name for the Mexican soccer team, was playing in Estadio Azteca here in Mexico City, I had to find a way to go.
I had been to one of these games before, but it was only a friendly match against the Republic of Congo. This time, it’s a World Cup Qualifier. In other words, this one really counted. Especially since Mexico is on the brink of being left out of next year’s World Cup, something that would be unheard of.
So Hube, Edgar, Paco, and I left from the Seminary at 5:30, thinking that we had plenty of time to get to the stadium. Well, we were wrong. At 8:30, we were exiting off the main road to get to the stadium. We put the radio on and heard the national anthems. We knew we were late.
Then, we heard that the game had started, and Mexico scored a goal in the first minute. We were still in line to find parking. As we pulled up closer to the stadium, we realized that the parking lot to the stadium was closed. So we had to park on the road in front of someone’s house and pay 20 pesos more than we would have paid at the stadium parking lot.
We walked to the stadium entrance, and as we were entering, they informed Huberto that he couldn’t bring in his backpack. So he left it at one of the places where they were selling t-shirts. We got into the stadium to watch the final 5 minutes of the first half.
But the in the last few minutes of the first half, Trinidad and Tobago scored a goal, which made everyone in the stadium upset.
We got to watch the second half from our nose-bleed section seats, which actually weren’t that bad. We saw the “golazo” by Mexico and went home happy with a 2-1 victory and 3 more points for Mexico in their quest to qualify for the 2010 World Cup (check the video highlights here).
Leaving where we were parked, none of the four of us who were in the car knew which way to go. We finally made it to a recognizable place, but by now, we were starving, so we had to stop to get some tacos on the way home.
Overall, it was a fun night, despite the 5 or 6 hours we spent in the car in traffic and/or lost in Mexico City. I’m glad we went, and I’m looking forward to August 12 when the United States comes to town to play against Mexico for bragging rights and points towards the World Cup.
Today we experienced our first ever earthquake here in Mexico City. I was sitting at the dining room table, Janell was upstairs working at the desk, and Nathan was out in the back porch swinging on our hammock swing. Ben was sleeping in his crib. Then it happened.
It felt to me like a giant was upstairs jumping up and down. I had never felt anything like it before. It seemed to last for about 15 seconds.
There aren’t earthquakes in Florida, so I wasn’t sure what I had felt. I assumed it was an earthquake. So, I went to twitter to let everyone know what I had experienced. I wasn’t the only one talking about it on there.
It seems there was a 5.7 earthquake near Puebla, which is about 3 hours from here (on a good traffic day). We felt it all the way up here in the northwest part of Mexico City. Of course, our family was all worried about us. About a minute after I wrote about it, Janell’s Dad called because he had seen it on the news, too. We assured him we were okay (although I’m sure he always has his doubts).
We are all fine. Benjamin slept right through it. Nothing fell off the walls or anything like that. We just bounced up and down for a while.
I just hope it doesn’t happen again for a while.
