I've decided to start my diary one day early because that is when our adventure really began. I am one of the 12 lucky girls on the squad that was able to travel to Mexico City as a part of the NFL Mexico Kick Off week. It was our first day in Mexico and the day started early. After a quick breakfast we loaded up the vans, complete with Colts logos, and headed to the local Six Flags. This wasn't an average day at the park, Six Flags was hosting the 2010 Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards. We were invited as guest performers; it was such an amazing experience. We witnessed the behind the scenes action of the Mexican entertainment stars, which was something new and exciting for me. After our performance, we headed to an authentic Mexican Restaurant and had our first taste of the local cuisine. After lunch it was straight to our second appearance for the day. This was one of the most interesting of the entire trip. We were the half time performance of a professional wrestling match! It was so much fun to be out there in front of nearly 10,000 people in the middle of a wrestling ring. The performance turned out to be one of our best; it really got me excited for the home opener at Lucas Oil! All of the fans really brought out our best! They had special lighting and the crowd was really pumped up to see us perform to Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and "Thriller". After the show, it was back to the hotel for a quick dinner and bed.
Sunday started with a group breakfast at 8:15. We then split into our two vans and headed out to see the city for our site seeing tour. This tour was a great way to learn a lot more about the history of the city, urban Mexican culture, and to see the beauty of Mexico City. The city is filled with artwork and beautiful statues lining the streets. As a part of our tour we went the Basilica De Guadalupe. We were lucky enough to have the priest who was serving as rector of the basilica come down to meet us and give us all a blessing as well as a little plaque to take with us. The last stop of our trip was to a small market. This is where most of us found some gifts for our families and some cute jewelry for ourselves as well. We spent lunch at an Argentinean style restaurant located in the Sky Mall. The restaurant had glass walls looking out over the mountains and down to the city. It was a beautiful site! After lunch we loaded up into the Colt's vans once again and headed to our show for the day. It was at the Galerias Atizapan Mall for the Liverpool Department Store. We were able to do our entire show at this event and then sign autographs for many fans after. It was surprising how many NFL fans were there. They were all so excited to see us. We had another dinner back at the hotel and then off to bed after an exhausting day.
Our first event Monday was another one of my favorites. We had interviews with the local and national press. We had a double-decker tour bus setup for our meeting! We were able to sit on the top level as the different news stations and newspapers took pictures and interviewed us about our trip. We had articles in the newspapers and internet from this trip which were fun to see. We were even mentioned in our own Sports Illustrated article online for being seen around Mexico City. Then it was off to one of the biggest colleges in Mexico. We performed a few dances for a large crowd of high school and college students. We signed autographs as the host passed out calendars, NFL glasses and mini helmets to those who answered questions correctly about the Colts. By the time we were about to leave the crowd had enjoyed our show so much they even asked for an encore!
Tuesday morning we started off in two different groups of six girls each. My squad started off at Canon's Executive Offices. The appearance was similar to our college visit, we performed, signed autographs and pictures, followed by a few more dances before we left for our next destination. After lunch, we headed to Terra where we had a live internet interview. This one was a bit difficult as we needed the host to translate the questions and answers so that the audience would understand. They were extremely nice and it was a lot of fun being on their show. At the end we even taught one of the hosts how to do a few dance moves! Then it was off to Mitsubishi Santa Fe. We met back up with the other squad where we were performing for a private party, signing autographs and took photos with the guests.
Breakfast on Wednesday was at 7:00 am. We started out our day with another college visit which was gorgeous inside and out. They had a stage set up for us in the middle of their court yard and even had the cheerleaders for their school performing as well. The crowd was loud and very welcoming to us. After a quick lunch, we were rushed to another live interview. This one was for UNAM. The host's father actually lives here in Indiana so she knew all about the Colts. We had an early night and were back to the hotel by 7p.m. We had a quick workout, dinner and had the rest of the night to relax.
Thursday was finally here, the big day. It started off with an appearance to Unilever Headquarters. We didn't really know what to expect, until we arrived and found out that it was for the launch of the new NFL helmet ice cream cones. They had one for each team in the NFL, even though the Colts helmet is the cutest! They will be officially launched in October. We even got a free sample! After lunch we were headed to the MVS internet, radio and TV show for a live interview. It was actually rather quick but a lot of fun. With a short break we were able to get ready for our big kick off party at the SKYY Bar. This was a bar located on the 46th floor that was connected to a rotating restaurant that you were able to look out and see the city from your dinner table. This particular show was another one of our favorites. It was a smaller setting but they had lights, fog and large crowd that were pumped to see us as well as the first game of the season.
On Friday, we had our last college visit for our trip at UVM Chapultepec Campus. Although we were towards the end of our trip the crowd was still just as excited to see us as we were to be there. After a short lunch we headed to Estadio's newspaper. For this particular interview/photo shoot we were taken to the top of a building right in the heart of the city. We were literally on the helicopter landing. It was an amazing site and background for our pictures that ended up being a whole page article the next day. We were up there for about 30 minutes before we start seeing a helicopter circling us because we were where they had to land. Oops! We took the rest of the interview out to a terrace where they took a few more individual shots and interviewed us for the article. For dinner, we had something really special planned. MTV Mexico had held a contest for six winning fans to meet us for a dinner party. We had reservations at a really nice Italian restaurant called D'Amico. The fans were great and everyone had a really fun dinner.
Waking up Saturday was a very bitter sweet feeling. It was very sad to realize that this would be our last day in Mexico but after a long, busy week we were looking forward to going back home to our family and friends. Our busy day started off at the Mexican Association Supporting Children with Cancer. This is a home for children and their families who had traveled for treatment. It was a free and safe place to stay while their children were ill. This was the first time that the NFL Mexico had visited and I believe it will be the first of many. The children were so excited to see us and watch us perform our show. After visiting with the children we headed off to two malls for our final two shows. We were all back together and able to perform our full show with costumes and the crowd really enjoyed it. We then had a dinner at the Villa Maria restaurant as a celebration party for a successful trip! We had authentic Mexican food, a mariachi band, and lots of dancing. It was the perfect ending to the perfect trip!
