Feliz Día de Independencía!!!

Yes, September 16 is the actual independence day of Mexico! Way awesome! I will go into detail momentarily. But to do the days in between...
Saturday was pretty chill, just hanging out with friends. Then Sunday, me and a few other girls went to this place called Monte Albán. It was Zapotec ruins. The Zapotecs had a great empire here a long time ago. Nothing to do with the Aztecs, who were more in Mexico City. But it still had some very cool structures and buildings. There was this one that was just a whole lot of stairs that were rather steep. At the top, some Mexicans (who get in free on Sundays), were cheering on anybody who tried run up the stairs. Shouting "yes you can, yes you can" or, "go him of the yellow" or "go little boy." It was hilarious! We got lots of pictures, of which I'll try to get up soon. We got back around 3ish, then I had lunch, then it began to pour, then sprinkle for the rest of the night. Needless to say, i just stayed home all that evening.
Monday, we had more classes, one of which was at a radio station that had been an important part of the teacher protests that took place a couple years ago. Some of the stuff the guy said about ways of communication, and how the government used the media basically just for their use of propaganda, etc, was really interesting.
Then Monday evening was probably one of the best times I've had for a long time! A group of us from the program all met up near my house, which is right near the center, then we walked down to the Zocalo to see the sights and hear "El Grito." (The Shout). We didn't really know what to expect. When we got there, there were a whole ton of people all crowded together. And they were spraying eachother with FOAM! It was this foam stuff from a spray can. It was hilarious! So pretty much all of us bought a foam can, and sprayed eachother... and everyone else. At times many of us were totally covered with it. We even got into wars with random people! Oh my goodness, it was soo much fun!
Then we were standing in front of what was the Municipal Palace (now it's a museum), and waited for the governor to come out and shout Viva México! Then some military people, and government people marched by... these were all the people that supported the governor (not many... he has caused so much pain and death in Oaxaca that most people hate him in one form or another). It was kind of strange to see this man. But it was still kinda cool to see the march, I'd never seen that type of thing before. Then, all of a sudden, the whole crowd started moving! We were just kinda freaking out, we had no idea what was going on! Then we stopped, listened and did the Grito, then watched the huge fireworks further away, and the less huge fireworks that was right next to us! They were on these moving structures. The one near us wasn't working real well, so a guy kept climbing up and lighting them with his cigarette! That's soo dangerous! But it was also really cool!
After this we went out to a disco (here they're called Antros) till 2ish, then went home. What a fantastic day!