Libros

So I haven't posted the whole month of November because I've been running around traveling and having a great time that I will write about more thoughtfully later in this blog.  But to try and meet my goal of at least one post a month here is an update about my other hobbies besides leaving Mexico City.

One of my favorite activities has always been reading (when school and parties and work don't get in the way).  Here in Mexico I have about 3 hours of commuting on work days.  When I'm not offering my services up to knitting a scarf for my friend Jess, or documenting the creative process on photobooth, I like to read.  

• During my trip over here, I was reading a borrowed book from Katie called "The Female Brain" by Grace (of Will & Grace) lookalike, Louann Brizendine, M.D.  Apparently she has also written one about the male brain and hopefully I can read that someday, but (like any blogger) I am a narcissist so I care more about the female brain.  This book is REALLY interesting and I suggest that any woman or man who likes women reads it.  
• Before I got here, I spent a few days confined to Staten Island for work and picked up Sandra Cisnero's "Caramelo" in the local college bookstore.  A big fan of Cisneros for her work A House on Mango Street, Caramelo looked promising because it tells the tale of a family road trip to Mexico City where I was soon headed!  So far so good but I put it down for a little while to start reading more in Spanish.
• When I was visiting my friend Sarah in Puebla, we stopped by a museum gift shop that was actually a bookstore and I thought I should pick something up in Spanish to brush up on that.  I was really drawn in to the book La frontera de Cristal by Mexican author Carlos Fuentes because it is a collection of 9 short stories following a chilanga (female native of Mexico City) to the north where Fuentes shows the "rift that has occurred between the U.S. and Mexico in the last two hundred years," to quote Amazon.com  
• Then a few weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the 10th Annual International Book Fair in the Zocalo of Mexico City where I picked up "De Los maras a los zetas: Secretos del Narcotrafico de Colombia a Chicago" by Jorge Fernandez Menendez.  I first learned about La Mara Salvatrucha from the AMAZING movie, Sin Nombre and although this is a very gory and heart-wrenching topic, I feel like it is something that I should be more informed about so it is on my list of things to read. 

• Shortly after the book fair, I went to my nearest Gandhi bookstore to buy yet another book that I had been hearing so much about.  Recently made into a film, "Blindness" is a novel by Jose Saramago.   He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998 and before watching the film I decided I had to read the book.  I found it in Spanish, "Ensayo sobre la ceguera" only to learn that it was translated from Portuguese.  At any rate, I am thoroughly enjoying it and without ruining it, the story is about an epidemic of a "milky white" blindness spreading throughout a city, and one character seems to be immune. 
• Speaking of Nobel Prize winners, Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa was recently awarded the prize for literature so I bought his book, "La fiesta del chivo" about the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic which lasted for over 30 years.  After visiting the Dominican Republic and learning about his regime in a Latin American studies class my senior year, this book seems really interesting and engaging so I am excited to read it during my time here in Mexico. 
• With all of this Latin American literature on my plate, I realized I should continue to read in English so that I don't forget how to speak it since I am here to teach it to others.   I borrowed "The Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver from my friend Whitney to read in the next couple of weeks.  I later lost it, but bought a replacement and am back to working on that. 
• Also, I bought a nook so I'm excited not to carry books aroudn in the future.

For those of you who read this far, thanks!!! I will post up cool pictures of November later, I promise!

Love,
Little J

Inspired by a juicy tangerine (and the trouble I have packing)

One thing that never gets old for me is the freshness of everything here.  Despite the fact that valley of Mexico (the state) is dry and desertlike, I have nearly unlimited access to fresh fruits, meat, and flowers.  


At least once a week I like to try doing something nice for my abuelita to make up for the fact that I can't guarantee my room will ever be up to par with my family's standards of cleanliness on any given day.  So, going to the market on Thursday and picking up anything we may want or need for the next few days of cooking has become one of my favorite activities.  (Keeping my room clean would be the obvious, less interesting solution to this.) The market always has really beautiful flowers for extremely affordable prices, about 1 or 2 US dollars for nice bouquets. 


On my pesero ride home today I saw these very unique velvety looking flowers that were the same color as a scarf I just knit and as the mess of yarn that I am currently working on.  Here is a high quality photograph of these "velvet flowers", courtesy of flickr.  I decided to get off the bus (luckily this was only a block away from my actual stop) and buy them for abue since I won't be in town for the mercado on Thursday.  

Those are in fact my calcium tablets on the ledge and a bag full of bread on the table.

Nothing in Mexico is without a long history, tradition, or interesting background story.  As it turns out, after lots of inquiries about whether I was preparing something for the upcoming holiday, these are the flowers traditionally purchased in Mexico City for offerings to the dead on Dia de los Muertos.  In Mexico, the dead are not feared or an unspeakable topic.  Instead, they are honored in a light hearted yet profound way on this holiday.  Families prepare the favorite foods and drinks of their deceased and offer them as a way of commemorating the deceased.  Observing and learning about the traditions associated with this holiday has been extremely enlightening and inspirational.  I am really looking forward to seeing the various ofrendas, offerings, that will be on display throughout the city next Tuesday.

Speaking of traditions, here is a bonus photo of abue's 100+ year old sewing machine:

Please note the foot pedal!

Peace, love, and it's time to work on my tan.

Little J 

Back by popular demand, I don't know how to say that in español

Hi world, 


I have done a horrible job of keeping up to date with blogging posts and an e-mail notification of a comment calling me out on this fact has inspired me to give the pueblo what it wants.  So in the past couple of months I've been keeping extremely busy.  After a bout with Moctezuma's revenge (that lasted like 2 weeks, dear god) I went out to make up for lost time.  


Here is a list of some of the things I've been up to

• First Annual Taco and Mariachi Festival.  Here I ate delicious tacos of "bistec ingles" - British Steak.  While the idea of British meat was highly unsettling, I found out that it's called this because of the marinating. This is the bomb poster they used to advertise it:

• Visits to fellow Fulbrighters in Cuernavaca (highlights include clubbing til 5 am and waterpark Temixco, and making a new friend who took us to awesome village called Chalma, and also buying myself a pair of hot pink espadrilles) and Puebla (highlights include: a really cool library because I'm a huge nerd, meeting Sarah's awesome theater friends and watching a great movie called "Temporada de Patos, and CANDY AVENUE where EVERY STORE SELLS A TON OF CANDY aka where I spent all of my money that weekend)

Here I am being very ritualistic (shocking!) at Chalma, the first time you visit this village you must wear a wreath of roses and flowers on your head, dance as an offering to the willow tree, and then take a dip in the water to cure your ills.

Biblioteca Palofoxiana, very illegal photograph

Day of the Dead Candy in Puebla

• Family weekend in Cuautla, Morelos with a guest appearance by Maddie!

Maybe 1% of my family

• Releasing my teenage self at an Interpol concert at the Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City

• Pic-nic or Dia de Campo in Chapultepec Park with a southerner, a cali girl, a colombian and my cousin Beto.  I have embarked on a mission to become really good at hackey sack FYI. 
• Costume party on Saturday night to which I went dressed as Batman (pictures to come soon)
• Also, this may shock anyone who's known me for longer than 2 years, but I am extremely athletic now.  No, really.  I am taking swimming lessons twice a week and may or may not start figure skating classes soon - don't ask.  

So this is just a snippet of what I've been up to in addition to the usual (worshipping my abuelita and sleeping a lot).  

Peace! I will write back next week after I go scuba diving in Las Islas Marietas.  

Besos,

Quesadilla

¡Jesús!

I thought I would start this post with an image to get everyone interested - mannequins here are not like mannequins back in the states (in case you were wondering). This is one of the first sights I came across on my way to school. From the metro station, it is about a 10-15 minute walk to my school and this main street is filled with food stands (yum) and other posts selling assorted items like candy, chips, and school apparel. Today was actually my second real day of work. As it turns out, right now the school I'm working at is in the middle of midterms for the current quarter and that means no one wants to go to an exciting extracurricular conversation club like mine. Instead they are studying. Except for JESÚS, my savior, (blasphemy is hilarious, I know) for being the only student to come to my convo club. Below is a picture of my very appealing posters so there is no doubt that people DON'T want to come to my club:

There are no words to describe how hard it was to make these; my hate for the new Microsoft Word only grew deeper when I realized it was impossible to change the settings from Spanish to English on the computer. Ctrl S doesnt save, Ctrl A doesn't select all, etc. Life is really hard!

Jesús is a student in advanced English and I really am thankful that he attended yesterday's club otherwise I might not have been able to handle today's whopping 2 students. At first I was frustrated not to jump right in with a ton of people asking me questions about grammar that I haven't been able to answer since high school English class, if I was even capable then. However, after a lot of thought and reflection on pesero rides, I realized this was a perfect way of easing into the role of an educator or tutor for my future students. Hopefully I didn't scare these three away and I will see their faces again, and I am even more hopeful that they will bring friends next time. Tomorrow I get to deal with paperwork at the immigration offices so expect a post about that in the future.

Now for some product placement shoutouts -

These two are for Leah Moon my traveling partner in crime/fun. First and foremost, everyone should know that Arnold Palmer is not the business here in Mexico. Instead we have Arizona Half Iced Tea & Half Lemonade. Keeping it simple.

This next product was one of my shopping items at Walmart today.

Big ups to my sister Carmencita for this garlic being named after her!! And for helping me by handling all of my mail issues since I left home! The world needs to know.

This is powdered garlic, one of my staple seasonings thanks to Leah and our semester in London. You can't see the girl's face on this high quality photograph, but I think that she does resemble our hostess with the mostest from our trip to Spain, Carmen.

This is a 100% necessary flashback picture to Spain. Here I am drinking port wine with Leah and Carmen on either side of me. Carmen's wonderful friend sitting at the far right invited us on a road trip to O Porto during our stay in España.

Getting off the topic of garlic, other comfort food things I bought today include A1 steak sauce, tuna (sorry to gross you out 50% of the population), cream cheese, butter, and a tupperware container to keep my sandwiches protected. It is not as cool as the one I scored during one wonderful and very memorable Price Chopper run, but it has hot pink detailing, so it will do.

In closing, I leave you with a picture of a Sour Patch Kid that sneaked (not snuck, so there - I can speak English!) into my room two weeks ago and tried to eat Teddy.

Sometimes they're sour

Sometimes they're sweet

Just wanted to draw attention also to 1) the sweet hat in the background 2) my circa 2000 denim jacket and 3) the ill suitcase on the right side (I finally unpacked 1 of them!)

Peace, love, and té (a new daily ritual)

Your favorite Mexican jumping jujubean

PS - In non-Mexican news, THIS IS THE SONG OF THE YEAR but with lyrics written out in Spanish to keep this blog cultural HUGE SHOUTOUT TO MY FELLOW BROCCOLI LOVER, JLIPPS FOR INTRODUCING ME TO THIS GEM

Empezando...

Today was my first day of school. After 17 years of experiencing this feeling as a student, I was sure it would be a breeze. For the most part it was; I met my supervisor and his superior this morning in the historic district of Mexico City and they drove me to the university. They were both extremely friendly and welcoming which made me feel really comfortable even though at this point I still feel that I don't know the first thing about teaching. Both are such interesting people and I am looking forward to working with them and finally being done with the paperwork associated with relocating to a new country.

My work schedule is da bomb diggity (I plan to teach as much outdated slang that I still happen to use to the students in the 7 conversation clubs that I will be holding each week). My schedule includes working Monday and Wednesday afternoons (2-6pm), and Tuesday and Thursday mornings (9am-1pm). I have FRIDAYS OFF. I don't have an official school calendar yet. However, I do know how Mexico likes to roll and being in an extremely Catholic nation means that there will be LOTS of days off and even longer weekends.

I have been using public transportation a lot in the last few days and just wanted to report on pricing. First, there is no organized Metrocard system or benefit for buying trips in bundles this means that I carry a card for the subway, a card for the metrobus, and lots of change at all times. The train costs 3 pesos/25¢ a ride; the really terrifying peseros cost 4 or 5 pesos / 30-35¢ (depending on the distance you go); and my absolute favorite form of transportation, the Metrobús costs a WHOPPING 5 pesos. To be honest I wish that I could take this everywhere. It is so PRACTICAL. The metrobus comes every 90 seconds pretty much and is immune to the heavy traffic. It is unbelievable that the scarily dangerous peseros cost just as much as one of the most modern transportation methods in the world. Unlike the subway, the metrobus is above ground which is very nice after years and years of riding in the sewers of New York City. For a visual representation of terrifying peseros set to the tune of a modern "La Cucaracha" watch this video on youtube.

My eating habits are adapting slowly to Mexican culture - I am having breakfast as usual, but eating huge, multiple course lunches and having just a snack in the evening. It's hard adjusting to this from a lifestyle of eating every 30 minutes but I think I will survive. I am still spending my days thinking about what my next meal will be like. Food is delicious here but that's not news.

To close, I would like to add a picture (for those who hate reading) of a few of us from the ambassador's reception that I hyped up so much. I snagged it from Whitney, one of the other lovely ladies who will be working here in Mexico City. In case anyone was curious, even in Mexico I am still the shortest person in any group that is not grades K-8. To my credit though, everyone in this photo is an American (except, of course, my really Mexican friend Maddy in the red rebozo).

Miss you girls!

Peace love tortas

¡Por fin!

At last I am in México! In the past two months I failed to write about my anticipation for the big trip because I was too busy hanging out with my friends and last minute packing to think about this blog.  Since my last post, I made two journeys to the Mexican Consulate in New York City and managed to get the appropriate visa for student teaching in Mexico.  If I had a scanner I would post the final product which involves a photo of me looking like a yeti thanks to the blurry photo printer in their offices.  I think that this photo is probably the reason that it took me the longest ever to get through Immigration at Benito Juarez Airport here in the capital (a record 5 minutes!)

Upon my arrival on Monday, I came to my grandma's house to drop my obscenely overweight luggage before meeting the rest of our group at Hotel Emporio on Tuesday afternoon.  It was great to see all the familiar faces I'd met in DC and to meet other grantees working on such interesting research projects.  We had a lot of events and some highlights are: 

• Cocktails at the really cool and artsy Hotel Condesa on their rooftop bar in the middle of rainy season.  Thankfully they had set up canopies before the downpour. 
• Visiting Castillo de Chapultepec and looking at INCREDIBLE murals that I had studied at Colgate (miss you Josh!)

Benito Juarez

Niños Heroes

• Eating at Villa Maria which reminded me a lot of the pub that Leah fell asleep in while we were in Salisbury because of all the funny sayings and posters they had on the walls (here's one from the bathroom). 

I'm too lazy to translate but it's about the different types of men in life.   Just know that the best ones are like coffee, rich, warm, robust and they keep you up all night. 

• Cocktail reception at the U.S. Ambassador's residence (Regan - I represented and only ordered G+T's of course).  I didn't bring a camera to this one because I had my doubts whether it was going to be okay with security so here is a photo of a really fancy invitation instead.

Yesterday the commission that brought us over here took us to San Juan Teotihuacán in Estado de México, just a short road trip away from Mexico City.  Although I've been here SEVERAL times before it is always a treat going with new people and bonding over the impressive ruins.  Here is a photo of the two major pyramids (Sun and Moon) and now dormant volcano in the background.  I added some brightness so the pyramids would show because it was really cloudy all day yesterday.  Still, I managed to get a sunburn proving that I am a lot less Mexican than I had thought. 

After separating from our group and going to our designated meeting point we learned that they had actually left for La Gruta, a restaurant inside a cave, without us.  After a ten minute 2 mile per hour double decker bus ride, we finally arrived.  Getting here brought back lots of memories of previous visits and of sharing stories about this awesome restaurant with Colgate friends.  

 

Anyway peeps, I hope this was interesting and that you will add this little Mexican blog to your bookmarks and read it when you are avoiding work, papers, can't sleep at night, miss me too much, have ready everything on Dlisted already, etc.  Please write me because I will miss you and think of you always.  Exhibit A: shoutout to Katie, this is a huge building at the Metrobus stop closest to my grandma's house!!!

Peace love tacos, 

    Little J

My internet debut

Hello world (all five of my readers)!

I have started this blog to keep a timeless record of my year abroad in Mexico City. After surprisingly receiving a grant to go down there and assist a much more qualified adult in teaching English for a mere 15 hours per week, I realized that I will more than likely have a lot of free time. I expect that all this free time will fill up with constructive community service, countless adventures, and funny moments. To avoid sitting around missing my friends and family back home in AMERICA, I have decided to keep this blog to share my experiences with you and the world at-large. I promise to write more about everything that went into getting this opportunity, but right now I have to pack for my trip to Washington DC for two days of orientation and preparation for the big trip to Mexico. I leave you with lists:

Three questions I have that I am too scared to ask the commission administering this grant:

1) When do I get my first paycheck?

2) Can I work only Monday-Wednesday?

3) When are vacations/how many government holidays are we looking at?

Three things I would like to achieve during my time south of the border:

1) To be able to eat spicy food

2) To be really good at cooking so that I can get my own TV show/book deal

3) To train for a (half) marathon so that I can take advantage of the outrageous altitude of Mexico City and be awesome when I get back to sea level

I would like to wish my male readers(?) a HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Here is a picture of me sleeping on my dad's belly when I was a baby. Check out my buzzcut. Hot or not?