cultural goodies

i am taking a moment to upload some more photos on my pathetically sparse flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nattiejones/), so you can glean a little more of my coyoacán life there. i hope to add more, but flaunting expensive electronics and taking pictures when i am all alone makes me a bit self-conscious.

a few cultural tidbits to share that have made their way to me from direct observation or jennifer's guidance...

traffic lights are suggestions rather than mandates. i thought this was possibly my imagination until i was in the car with jennifer, who is a very responsible person, and she opted to proceed through a red light, and casually mentioned that sometimes "they're optional". as one might imagine, that contributes an added thrill to my walk to and from work each day.

payday is typically twice per month in mexico city (maybe even throughout the country)... apparently, on the weekends after payday, muggings go way up, traffic is even more insane than usual and - on the brighter side - restaurants are packed and movies are sold out.

there were some others, but i had two negra modelos with lunch, so i can't remember them at the moment.

in other news, the uncle of the golden girls had to have emergency surgery for cancer in his mouth on friday. so he and - as far as i can gather - his wife are bunking with me for the next couple of weeks. i didn't follow the whole story, but it was an unbeatable review of my spanish lesson on family member vocabulary... but my uncertainty of whether the woman is his wife (could be daughter) shows how much that lesson has served my purposes.

work has been all translation for the website... a manageable but exhausting task. i am looking into spanish classes which i will probably take in july. i am learning to physically blend in a little more, so it would be nice to not have my broken spanish immediately give me away.

viveros

yesterday evening i went to the park - or, really more like a botanical garden - near my house... it's called viveros de coyoacán and it's about a 10 minute walk from home. i have been thinking that i should get back into the habit of running since, frankly, i have quite a bit of time on my hands. i had been there once before to go for a walk, and had taken in that there were a number of runners, both men and women. so late yesterday afternoon i suited up in my running shorts and sleeveless shirt and set out to wrap up my weekend with a little sweat.

it could have been my imagination, but i seemed to get an inordinate number of stares. i started to pay attention to what other women joggers were wearing... some were wearing tank tops with pants, others were wearing shorts with long-sleeved shirts. i did appear to be the only woman showing so much skin. so maybe it's an either-or sort of situation... arms or legs but never both! i also took note of the fact that not many of the "runners" were sweating... they were all going so slow that there didn't appear to be too much physical exertion going on. so i have decided that it was more likely my very red (thanks to the gehard genes) sweaty face that was attracting all the attention.

and i have to point out that there was a tall, lanky man running in JEANS and a STRAW HAT who seemed to be getting less notice than me.

settling in

this weekend has allowed me to settle into things a little more. friday evening, we had the most intense thunderstorm i have probably ever heard. the part of roof of the house closest to my bedroom is made of some sort of sturdy plastic (!) and i was convinced it was just a matter of time until it succumbed to the pressure of the pouring rain. alas, it never happended, but the power did go out for a few hours, so friday evening was a lot of reading by candle/flashlight and early to bed.

yesterday i decided to go for it and brave both the metro and the big city. the metro was nowhere near as scary as people have made it out to be, and its 2 peso ($.20) price tag appeals to the miser in me. before hopping on the metro, i looked around coyoacán's mall a little, and discovered that there are two of my favorite clothing stores from my france days there (for those who know, zara and mango)... a very dangerous situation, since the a mall is about a 15 minute walk from my house.

i took the metro into the center of downtown mexico city (i used an effective strategy of following other women alone, so we would be in the same car -- solidarity!). i didn't necessarily know that that was what i was doing by taking the metro to the hidalgo stop, and it probably wasn't the best idea. when i came up from the subway station, it kind of felt like i was going to new york for the first time, was alone, and was getting a first glimpse of the city in the center of times square. so i was a bit overwhelmed, and mostly had no idea how i was going to figure out what direction to walk to get to the zócalo, my main desination. i made an educated guess, and it turned out to be right. so i strolled along a big urban park (the alameda) and before long i was in the narrow, packed streets of the historic center. it was chaotic but beautiful. tons of people were out, making the rounds before the big mexico-argentina world cup game.

i got the lay of the land and then decided to walk over to another main touristy area (zona rosa), which turned out to be quite a hike... and when i finally made it there, there wasn't a whole lot to see (it apparently is most happening during the week and at night) and i had trouble finding a lunch spot where i would feel comfortable as a woman alone. i settled on vips, which seemed to be mexico's answer to denny's. i hadn't realized that the soccer game would be on EVERYWHERE, but sure enough, it was packed with mexicans cheering on their team. as i opened my menu, mexico scored their only goal of the game, and the place went crazy. people jumping out of their seats, screaming, clapping and blowing bullhorns. all this in a chain diner... i can't imagine what bars were like. i stayed until halftime (if that's what it's called in soccer) and then headed for the metro. once back in coyoacán, i noticed that literally everyone was watching the game. all the sidewalk vendors had tv's set up, with people eating their tacos gathered around on the sidewalk. i stopped by the grocery store, and not only was it empty, but all of the employees were gathered around the two tv's that were tuned into the game. it felt like a ghosttown on my way home, and when i got to the house, i caught the last few minutes to see mexico - sadly - lose in overtime.

last night i went over to jennifer's apartment to watch vera drake and meet her super-fast talking mexican fiancé. the movie was great and the spanish conversation had me beat when i got home at midnight.

i had a lazy morning today... i found a great coffee shop in central coyoacán where i got my seattle-level buzz and read for awhile. i was amused at the disconnect between the organic chiapas coffee that they serve and the music they play... toni braxton, the verve, cher and something else that is unidentifiable but brought back very stong middle school dance memories.

i then strolled around the weekend craft market for a long time. i decided to save any purchasing for another weekend and today just checked out everything that's available. i am feeling much more comfortable, and i am starting to tap into how i might keep male attention to a minimum. looking assertive and making eye contact seems to help. generally, it's just a lot of harmless "hola"s and whistles, but the occaisional hissing does make my skin crawl.

today's weather is glorious, so i will spend the rest of the day outside, i think. there is a park near my house with a nice running path, so i might try to incoporate some regular excercise into my routine. i am going to need to have something to offset the tostadas, chilaquiles, and the latest discovery (thanks to jennifer) of japanese-style peanuts, which are essentially peanuts that are fried in a soy sauce shell. so strange but so good.

i have spent far too much time attempting to post pictures, but blogspot is not cooperating... check them out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nattiejones/.

¡viernes!

i have just finished up the first week of work... no big plans for my friday night, since i am still committed to getting a better sense of coyoacan before i brave the big city. mostly i have a date with queso fresco, black beans, some tortillas and the biggest avocado you have ever seen.

work has been moving right along. i spent most of the week reading up on GIRE and getting a better idea of what they do and what their positions are. i hadn't realize that they aim to decriminalize - rather than legalize -abortion. apparently, legal abortion is too radical an idea, so the best they can realistically do is to have it no longer considered a criminal act (which it currently is, in all states except for mexico city/distrito federal). so after lots of reading in spanish and english, today i started on translating parts of their website. that will be my task for next week as well, and then i will get into longer term projects.

i have continued to get major doses of spanish to tire my brain... on wednesday there was a 2.5 hour staff meeting where everyone presented their plans for the upcoming fiscal year, and then yesterday i went to a talk on democracy and inequality at a sister organization. think about how much of that i probably understood with two quarters of spanish under my belt. you're right! i am becoming less frustrated though, because i have started to notice that when my brain is ready and i am feeling alert, i understand quite a bit. it's just that my brain poops out after about 15 minutes, and the rest is lost on me.

i am having some technical difficulties with my computer at work, so still no pictures. i have put in a call to alfredo, the tech guy who is also my new best friend since i have had at least one computer problem every day that i have been here, so we'll see if he can work some magic next week.

for the weekend, i am hoping to get into the real downtown on saturday or sunday. i am trying to decide if it will be less scary to take the metro or a taxi. jennifer gave me the number for a radio taxi company (those are the ones that are safe, since they won't abduct you, or beat you up until you hand over your credit cards) but i am intimidated by having to say where i am and what i am wearing and when i need the taxi. maybe i'll write myself a little taxi script.

the library at work just got a copy of vera drake on DVD and there was a mad dash to get dibs on it... jennifer got to it first, so she invited me over to watch it at her apartment tomorrow night. so that's a little something on my limited social calendar.

my phone is in working order afterall, so that has been helping a ton with homesickness. and the golden girls keep me pretty entertained. the other night, the queen bee (conchita) came into my room and cozied up on my chair for bedtime chats. she gave me her FULL take on the upcoming presidential election, and also informed me that the woman who helps her clean the floors finds brendan - from the photos in my room - quite handsome, and she agrees... that was something i would have never expected to hear from her... but there we were, on Day 2, no less.

the weather has been iffy. it's cloudy today and rained quite a bit last night. i am hoping to have some sunshine over the weekend so i can get out into the park near my house and see more of coyoacan. if it's more rain, the frida kahlo museum it shall be. the food has been great, and i am becoming a regular carnivore. chicken ain't so bad, as it turns out. so far, no gristle.

so far, so good

I arrived in Mexico City late yesterday after a painful day of travelling... up at 3am, at SeaTac by 4am, into LAX at 8:30am and onto Mexico City at 1pm, for a 6:30pm arrival. And of course there would be two exits from customs for North American flights. How else could my supervisor and I end up at two different seemingly agreed upon meeting spots? Eventually (an hour later) we found each other... she is exactly as I was expecting. Young, friendly, very encouraging, and a Midwesterner to boot! She took me for a quick grocery store stop, and then onto the place where I will be staying.

Ah, the place where I will be staying. Imagine two older sisters who could easily star in the Mexican version of Golden Girls. But not Blanche... more Sophia and Rose. Probably not tough or imposing enough to be Dorothy. It is actually a great set up, but I am still not convinced that the fact that we don't lock the door to the house that I am staying in (a guest house, separate from where the sisters live) is such a great idea. The sister who runs the show (I have, embarassingly, forgotten her name for the second time in less than 24 hours) has assured me many times over that it's fine, and the front gate to the whole shebang is always locked. As far as I can gather they are both always home, so I suppose it will be OK.

The first day at work was really interesting. Perhaps the highlight of the whole situation is that they forego the traditional 2 hour lunch, and instead work from 9-3 without a lunch break. As probably won't surprise most of you, when I heard this I told Jennifer (my supervisor) that I didn't understand how people could possibly go *6 HOURS* without eating. She claimed she just "got used to it" but I had my doubts. Alas, my tummy and I made it through Day 1 on the new schedule. A three course meal consumed promptly at 3pm helped. Besides food, work today was a lot of confusing introductions (GIRE has a staff of about 20, most of whom have names and job titles that are far too similar) and a seminar for all of the women employees... an interesting approach, but the 4 dudes on staff didn't seem too phased by being excluded. It was led by the President of the Board, Marta Lamas, who has been described to me as the Mexican equivalent to Gloria Steinham. So, even though I understood about 40-50% of what she covered in 3.5 hours, it was still an honor just to be in her presence for that length of time.

I am holding my own with the Spanish, though I am facing the fact that I will have to just bite the bullet and realize that I am going to make a lot of mistakes for a long, long time. And everyone at the office is really friendly and very patient at my limited attempts to spit something comprehensible out at them. I am also (thus far) holding my own with the chicken quesadillas I had for lunch. I am bracing myself for the turista, but Jennifer has given me plenty of tips on how to fend it off as best I can... including iodine drops that I will add to water and then soak any fruits and veggies (that you don't peel) for 10 minutes before injesting them into my delicate gringo system.

I have spent the last couple of hours strolling around Coyoacan, and it is beautiful. There are still a lot of people to remind me that, though far from the center of town, it still is part of the mega-metropolis of Mexico City, and on a random Tuesday night in June, things are feeling pretty festive. I haven't noticed the smog yet, and the weather is gorgeous.

So I'm settling in quite nicely. I hope to figure out my Verizon issues soon (all of my forethought in getting that fancy North America plan isn't exactly panning out) so I can be in touch by phone too. Until then, blogspot it is.

a microscopic fish in the world's biggest Spanish-speaking pond

Here I am... in cyberspace, feeling a little queasy. As you likely are aware, I am not one to embrace the latest and greatest technologies. It's a slippery slope, though, and after buying a cell phone last week I discovered my inner technophile and decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon. A post-2000 computer and/or a digital camera might not be too far behind.

I just got back to Seattle from a wonderful, sunny wedding in the Caribbean, where I added a 4-foot veil to my list of fashion "must-haves", and discovered that drinks with a lot of rum do wonders for my dance moves. Next up is my summer in Mexico City... as of Monday, June 19, I - armed with one year of graduate study in Public Administration and severely limited Spanish skills - will be doing my best as an intern with a reproductive choice advocacy organization in the Mexican capital.

This blog is where I will chronicle the three month adventure, and hope you will join me. 20 million people and really bad air pollution is a lot to take on all alone.