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.