{"id":3158,"date":"2026-01-17T05:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T05:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/?p=3158"},"modified":"2026-01-17T05:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T05:17:10","slug":"mexico-city-last-day-part-1-earthquake-alert-last-class-fonda-lunch-ane-biblioteca-vasconselos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/?p=3158","title":{"rendered":"Mexico City – Last Day part 1: Earthquake alert, last class, Fonda lunch, and Biblioteca Vasconselos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At 1am we were rudely awakened by an alert from the government that there was about to be an earthquake and we had about 60 seconds to get outside. Of course in our case, we could not do that. We are on the top floor of an apartment building so our best bet was to get under a table. All 3 of us were dead asleep and not quite functioning within 60 seconds. Luckily for us, it was only around 4.3 on the Richter scale and we didn\u2019t feel anything. We just had to wait for the adrenaline rush to subside and then we could go back to sleep. Needless to say we were all moving slower than usual this morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to finish my homework this morning so I was running a bit late. The location for class had changed and we were having a bit of trouble finding the two cafes we were supposed to meet our teachers at. In the end I abandoned the bus idea and took an uber so I would not be late. It was a tiny cafe in an obscure place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My fancy chai latte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Overall, I love the concept of meeting in a different part of the city everyday to experience caf\u00e9s and parks in different neighbourhoods. It also gave us the challenge of navigating the city on foot, transit and sometimes uber in a pinch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Interesting window<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Door to our cafe <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The park we met at today had an exquisite Pavillion – an example of moorish architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The eagle with a snake in its mouth is a national symbol for Mexico. The symbol is rooted in the Aztec legend that their god told the wandering Mexica people that they should build their city where they found an eagle devouring a serpent. The prophesy came true and that was the site chosen for their capital – now Mexico City.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Quincea\u00f1era photo shoot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After our class, we said goodbye to our classmates and teachers and headed to a Fonda recommended by Michelle and Lola\u2019s teacher. A Fonda is usually a small, family-run traditional homestyle cooked meal restaurant. It is extreme informal, strangers will sit at any table where there is space, and there is a full menu set for a very affordable price. My meal included a drink, soup, bread, rice, a fish fillet with beans and salad and then a small bowl of jello for dessert – all for 95 pesos! (approx $7.45 CDN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Soup and hibiscus juice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Main entree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tiny bowl of jello ( I know it doesn\u2019t look tiny here, but it was about three bites )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next stop was the Biblioteca Vasconcelos. This was where our class was supposed to be held today but there was a strike going on. I found out later that Michelle and Lola\u2019s class went anyway and it was open. Lucky for me, they were nice enough to take me back there after class so I could enjoy it too. This interesting building was completed in 2006, but then was closed down for about 22 months to fix some major mistakes in the build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Whale sculpture by Gabriel Orozco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Side view of sculpture <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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View from the top floor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pieces from a youth illustrators exhibit in the library:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beautiful mural display<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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View from the top floor veranda of the library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After the library we walked for about 40 minutes through many diverse neighbourhoods to get to the Secretariat of Public Education headquarters that doubles as the Live Museum of Muralism. Here are some photos I took along the way. We passed several huge markets, as well as hundreds of people selling their wares on either sides of the street, not in any organized way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Diego Rivera murals at the Secretariat of Public Education Headquarters deserve their own post, so I will leave you with one last photo of which highlights the discrepancy between neighbourhoods in Mexico City. This was taken within walking distance of the last photos I posted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Quincea\u00f1era dress shop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At 1am we were rudely awakened by an alert from the government that there was about to be an earthquake and we had about 60 seconds to get outside. Of course in our case, we could not do that. We … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3158"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3161,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158\/revisions\/3161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}