Gringolandia

As Maggie asked us to introduce ourselves at the reception, she joked that we were from Gringolandia, apparently a semi-common term for the US.  I think gringo might have once been offensive, but in every context I've been, it's been harmless.

Well, after spending Friday at the Benjamin Franklin Library (the US Embassy's library in Mexico City), we came up with our own term: Obamalandia.

We met in the lobby area of Casa González having packed our bags, put them in Jessica's room (so we could check out) and eaten breakfast.  We walked from there to the library, conveniently around the corner from the Comexus office.  We had to go through a metal detector and show our bags as well as confine our cameras.

Once inside, we saw a welcome figure and were DYING to take pictures, but observed our rules, being teachers and all.  We were given a quick tutorial on the Library's webpage- a very functional and useful place if I can commit the time to exploring it!  We had a bit of free time before our field trip, so we caught up on emails, etc.  This was my first contact with internet since Tuesday afternoon, so I was glad to send out a few notes.

On our way out, some brave soul (no telling who in our group since that seems to appropriately define all of us) must've asked for permission for a photo since this was a special time.

We were granted a photo session.