What we do when 88% of our time is free time

We’ve been in Mexico City for over two weeks now and our one and only time commitment is to our Spanish classes, which take place Monday-Friday from 10am-2pm. This means that we are completely free to do whatever we want for 148 of the 168 hours in each week! Can you imagine such luxury? We are doing our best not to waste this privilege nor take it for granted! Here are some of the things we’ve found ourselves doing more of, now that we have all of this time:

1. Sleeping. I’m sure you aren’t surprised by this one. We now sleep at least 9 hours each night, and we are feeling the benefits of it, both physically and mentally!
2. Drinking water. This is a weird one, but it is true. I drink quite a lot more water now, perhaps simply because I notice my thirst more? Or because nothing is preventing me from getting up to get more water? Not exactly sure why.
3. Messaging / Connecting with people (through media). For me, it takes some mental energy to reach out to people, even though I am always happy when I do it and am always happy when people reach out to me. Now that I have a lot more mental energy to spare, I find myself randomly messaging people much more frequently and being (a bit) more responsive when people message me.
4. Reading. We’ve been reading for pleasure quite a lot since we arrived. I’ve read the Catcher in the Rye, Lucy, and A Stranger in the Woods since getting here, all three which I found in this apartment. Though I have my Kindle with me, I’ll always choose to read a real book over a Kindle book if I have the option!
5. Exercising. We run at the park, we use the outdoor exercise equipment, we do exercise videos at the apartment, and we do it all at a slow and casual pace that makes it a pleasure.
6. Ambling. We amble around quite a lot. Usually we have a destination, but have no time constraints in terms of when we need to get there, so we walk slowly. I love it.

Now there are two time-wasting traps that we occasionally get caught in but are doing our best to avoid. I am sure you can guess the first one! They are:

1. Netflix. We try not to go there, but sometimes we do. We never feel great about it afterwards. Now let me clarify that I do not consider watching a good show together to be a waste of time – that is quality time! But watching a mediocre show just to pass the time, or watching TV alone I consider to be a waste of time (for myself – no judgment on others!).
2. Settlers of Catan. Let me explain. We play Settlers of Catan (a board game) online, and it is addictive. Sometimes I open up my computer to play a quick game, and next thing I know two hours have passed and all I got from it was a bucket of frustration because my ranking has gone below 0 again (you know what I mean, Brock, Adrienne, BenJee, Ana). Again, let me clarify that I consider playing the board game in real life with friends to be an excellent use of my time, but playing online against strangers I think it is a bit of a waste.

Besides all of the above, we are of course doing our best to absorb and learn Spanish as well as to take in the various interesting sites in the area. We’ve made some friends in our Spanish classes that we’ve gone out with a few times. We’ve also done some very normal things such as going to a movie, ordering take-out Chinese food, and going to the mall.

In summary, having 88% of our time be free time has been wonderful – and very good for our health! We have about 10 days left here in Mexico City. We plan to make the most of it!

Here’s a shot of our lovely AirBnB. I spend a lot of time at that desk studying Spanish!

And here’s another.

The bedroom. Note the very random little mirror on the wall.

We spend a lot of time looking for food, eating said food, then talking about the food. Andrew went for a sandwich at this place, while I got tamales (and coffee, strangely).

We tried some Israeli food the other night. Can’t have tacos for every meal! (or can you?)

I had enchiladas with a chocolate mole sauce (weird but good!) and Andrew had some kind of meatball… can’t recall what it was called.

A taco stand near where we are staying that goes heavy on the meat!

We also spend a lot of time at the nearby park, which is absolutely lovely. We love seeing the dogs in their training class!

We’ve also been to see Lucha Libre wrestling matches twice now. It is quite a show!

We went to see Frida Kahlo’s house last week, which was muy interestante.

Checked out some pyramids over the weekend. This excursion was a bit of a fail in that we arrived too late and had to rush through it, and we did not dress appropriately (it was cold and rainy!).

We’ve been to quite a few museums at this point, but we still have several more we’d like to check out. This was at the National Museum of Anthropology, which was probably the coolest museum I’ve ever been to.

Until next time!