Quick post about machismo, mainly because I'm too exhausted.
Only major incident I've had involved eating dinner. That place where I got the 1/4 chicken, well I went back for lunch one day, and sat down at the counter, where all the day-laborers usually sit (no tables available). I got my food and started off first without really using any hot sauce or peppers. It didn't take me long to realize that at least two of the groups of guys were laughing at me.
So the next tortilla-worth of food, I ate a ridiculous amount of hot sauce along with equal amounts jalapeños and chicken. Let's just say my whole head felt like I was getting punched. The worst part was that before I did this, I forgot I didn't have any water or other liquid.
So I sat there, basically dying, eating an insane amount of hot sauce and jalapeños.
Suddenly the guy next to me introduced himself. The same guy who I had heard involved in a lot of gringo related jokes.
I feel like an idiot for trying to prove my machismo like that, but damn if it is ever a good way to get respect at a diner.
Also, I don't think I remember what non-hot food tastes like. Seriously
23 June 2008
21 June 2008
Street Names, or Who Wants to Live on HEGEL
(Note, this is going to be an insanely long post, but probably my favorite so far)
Yea, that's right. This is a common theme in Mexico. Like our forefathers in los Estados Unidos, there was a bit of a European...uh, love going on. Except here, the rich were straight up European surrounded by millions of natives. So in order to preserve their idea of Europe, two major things happened that I've noticed so far.
First, the rich act like they're living in 19th century Europe. They have a lot of the same formalities, a lot of the same rules governing conduct between classes, etc. Two examples happened just yesterday about this.
We had this meeting in the gallery yesterday. Before it started, all of the spare chairs in the gallery were rounded up and put up in an empty display room, that apparently doubles as a meeting room. I have no idea who brought them up there, but they were there. The meeting ended and everyone started back to their offices, all of which are on different floors, most downstairs where the chairs came from.
Not one person took their chair with them. Instead they let Edith, the tiny 4'10" 65 year old woman carry all of these chairs up and down the stairs. Edith is the all-purpose cleaning and cooking woman at the gallery. I couldn't believe it, so I went and took as many as I could, as she was clearly struggling.
The next was at lunch. Edith cooked an insanely delicious meal for a "gallery lunch." She served the entire meal, which was okay considering that that was pretty much her job title. But the other maintenance staff, who not only basically run the entire place, but are in charge of caring for and protecting all this ridiculous artwork, including wrapping them in bubble wrap which is incredibly difficult and time consuming, was forced to eat outside the room we were in, despite a lot of open seats at the table. Remember, there's only 10 people that work there at all, so any divisions are purely invented. It was just weird (although we all got tequila...)
The other main thing they did that I've noticed so far is street naming. Not kidding. It's unbelievable, and almost entirely in the wealthy portions of town.
For instance, I live on Biarritz (a beach city in France, known for being incredibly glitzy) and my cross streets are Londres and Hamburgo. The streets to either side are Praga and Sevilla. Let's just say my entire neighborhood is city names from the Old World or the megalopolises of Asia (Tokio)
I meant to mark where it is I live, but it's easy enough to find. Between Sevilla and Praga in the bottom left corner. It's only one block long, haha.
But look at all the names. It's like someone pulled out a map of Europe and wrote down everything he saw on Mexico City.
And of course the rivers, I find these particularly amusing.
But nothing does justice like living on one of the great lakes. Haha, who wants to live by Lake Erie, when you can live on it in la Ciudad.
But of course, here is where it gets messed up. Apparently, whatever socialite was responsible for all this naming of streets ran out of things on the map of Europe on which to transplant to the map in Mexico.
So he apparently opened up a "Who's Who of Europe" and came up with this disaster. Mind you the next two slides are only about 2 of 5 I could have made, but these two are particularly hilarious.
I mean seriously. Darwin? Hegel? Just plain silly. Living on Gutenberg is actually impressive, it's a very beautiful street. But really. Gutenberg?
Other things to point out:
1. Even in Mexico, Leibniz and Newton don't see eye-to-eye.
2. Who gave Rousseau such a small street?
3. Sorry Dave, even in Mexico poor Tesla gets no credit. (and notice Curie and Emerson to point out that he probably should have, not to mention Edison)
But easily the best part is the "Writer's District." My relative actually lives very near here. But still, just silly. All writers and thinkers.
Catch you on Ibsen Street. I can't even say that with a straight face. Bernard Shaw would be proud.
Yea, that's right. This is a common theme in Mexico. Like our forefathers in los Estados Unidos, there was a bit of a European...uh, love going on. Except here, the rich were straight up European surrounded by millions of natives. So in order to preserve their idea of Europe, two major things happened that I've noticed so far.
First, the rich act like they're living in 19th century Europe. They have a lot of the same formalities, a lot of the same rules governing conduct between classes, etc. Two examples happened just yesterday about this.
We had this meeting in the gallery yesterday. Before it started, all of the spare chairs in the gallery were rounded up and put up in an empty display room, that apparently doubles as a meeting room. I have no idea who brought them up there, but they were there. The meeting ended and everyone started back to their offices, all of which are on different floors, most downstairs where the chairs came from.
Not one person took their chair with them. Instead they let Edith, the tiny 4'10" 65 year old woman carry all of these chairs up and down the stairs. Edith is the all-purpose cleaning and cooking woman at the gallery. I couldn't believe it, so I went and took as many as I could, as she was clearly struggling.
The next was at lunch. Edith cooked an insanely delicious meal for a "gallery lunch." She served the entire meal, which was okay considering that that was pretty much her job title. But the other maintenance staff, who not only basically run the entire place, but are in charge of caring for and protecting all this ridiculous artwork, including wrapping them in bubble wrap which is incredibly difficult and time consuming, was forced to eat outside the room we were in, despite a lot of open seats at the table. Remember, there's only 10 people that work there at all, so any divisions are purely invented. It was just weird (although we all got tequila...)
The other main thing they did that I've noticed so far is street naming. Not kidding. It's unbelievable, and almost entirely in the wealthy portions of town.
For instance, I live on Biarritz (a beach city in France, known for being incredibly glitzy) and my cross streets are Londres and Hamburgo. The streets to either side are Praga and Sevilla. Let's just say my entire neighborhood is city names from the Old World or the megalopolises of Asia (Tokio)
I meant to mark where it is I live, but it's easy enough to find. Between Sevilla and Praga in the bottom left corner. It's only one block long, haha.
But look at all the names. It's like someone pulled out a map of Europe and wrote down everything he saw on Mexico City.
And of course the rivers, I find these particularly amusing.
But nothing does justice like living on one of the great lakes. Haha, who wants to live by Lake Erie, when you can live on it in la Ciudad.
But of course, here is where it gets messed up. Apparently, whatever socialite was responsible for all this naming of streets ran out of things on the map of Europe on which to transplant to the map in Mexico.
So he apparently opened up a "Who's Who of Europe" and came up with this disaster. Mind you the next two slides are only about 2 of 5 I could have made, but these two are particularly hilarious.
I mean seriously. Darwin? Hegel? Just plain silly. Living on Gutenberg is actually impressive, it's a very beautiful street. But really. Gutenberg?
Other things to point out:
1. Even in Mexico, Leibniz and Newton don't see eye-to-eye.
2. Who gave Rousseau such a small street?
3. Sorry Dave, even in Mexico poor Tesla gets no credit. (and notice Curie and Emerson to point out that he probably should have, not to mention Edison)
But easily the best part is the "Writer's District." My relative actually lives very near here. But still, just silly. All writers and thinkers.
Catch you on Ibsen Street. I can't even say that with a straight face. Bernard Shaw would be proud.
20 June 2008
When Good Emo Kids Get Attacked
So, I was walking by a park, maybe a couple hours ago. And there were, I kid you not, about 200 emo high school kids, long hair, Anarchist T-shirts, etc. The usual smoking corner crowd in the U.S.
Except there were 200 of them. And they could not possibly look more out of place than they do in Mexico City. I mean, no one looks even remotely like that who's over the age of 20. There are a lot of hipsters, clean-cut kids, preps, and of course your Latin American attempt at Eurotrash.
But not punks, not emo. Dashboard Confessional is not welcome in the D.F.
So, they were literally moving around this fountain like an amoeba. There was clearly an "elite" group that the rest were following and paying attention to, but there were so many, it was hard to see where they were. They moved so fast and so many that I ended up standing about 150 feet away watching with some policeman that happened to be there too (again, there are so many police).
We got to talking, and after accidentally letting slip that I couldn't understand him (he spoke INSANELY fast), he actually warmed up to me since he apparently has family in Chicago, instead of shaking me down for the several hundred pesos I had in my pocket.
He said they come to this park a lot. And then started laughing.
"Ve alli!" He said, and pointed over at one of the streets bordering the park. All of a sudden, about 15 police cars came blazing down some connecting side streets, and 25 police officers, batons drawn, charged the group of now scrambling emo kids.
The cop I was with laughed and laughed as a couple hundred high school kids ran at full speed from the charging police. I was glad I'd made a police friend before this happened, and that I hadn't happened to be walking through at that instant.
Let's just say, I think this happens a lot, and I was really glad I was wearing dress pants and shirt.
Really glad.
Machismo...
Except there were 200 of them. And they could not possibly look more out of place than they do in Mexico City. I mean, no one looks even remotely like that who's over the age of 20. There are a lot of hipsters, clean-cut kids, preps, and of course your Latin American attempt at Eurotrash.
But not punks, not emo. Dashboard Confessional is not welcome in the D.F.
So, they were literally moving around this fountain like an amoeba. There was clearly an "elite" group that the rest were following and paying attention to, but there were so many, it was hard to see where they were. They moved so fast and so many that I ended up standing about 150 feet away watching with some policeman that happened to be there too (again, there are so many police).
We got to talking, and after accidentally letting slip that I couldn't understand him (he spoke INSANELY fast), he actually warmed up to me since he apparently has family in Chicago, instead of shaking me down for the several hundred pesos I had in my pocket.
He said they come to this park a lot. And then started laughing.
"Ve alli!" He said, and pointed over at one of the streets bordering the park. All of a sudden, about 15 police cars came blazing down some connecting side streets, and 25 police officers, batons drawn, charged the group of now scrambling emo kids.
The cop I was with laughed and laughed as a couple hundred high school kids ran at full speed from the charging police. I was glad I'd made a police friend before this happened, and that I hadn't happened to be walking through at that instant.
Let's just say, I think this happens a lot, and I was really glad I was wearing dress pants and shirt.
Really glad.
Machismo...
19 June 2008
Cuba v. Mexico
There's about a 50/50 split in the cubans and mexicans that work at the gallery. The cubans all sound like me, as in the end of every word is entirely dropped off. The mexicans all speak insanely fast and slur every other word.
Even native speakers struggle with other native speakers over this. So, then you add me, who can barely speak, and who speaks with a very very heavy cuban accent (thanks ma) and send me out into the wide world, and even though all the cubans understand me, the mexicans here understand me not at all.
Which is frustrating, because I look just hispanic enough that they give me a chance as a spanish-speaker, but if I have a "moment" it's all over. Haha, not hispanic enough.
Yea, that's all for tonight. Tomorrow, I explain what happened last night, where I wandered around my neighborhood looking for an open restaurant, and after getting so pissed off I was shaking, I stopped in at a local bar and got decently drunk with some guy named Tonio.
w00t
Even native speakers struggle with other native speakers over this. So, then you add me, who can barely speak, and who speaks with a very very heavy cuban accent (thanks ma) and send me out into the wide world, and even though all the cubans understand me, the mexicans here understand me not at all.
Which is frustrating, because I look just hispanic enough that they give me a chance as a spanish-speaker, but if I have a "moment" it's all over. Haha, not hispanic enough.
Yea, that's all for tonight. Tomorrow, I explain what happened last night, where I wandered around my neighborhood looking for an open restaurant, and after getting so pissed off I was shaking, I stopped in at a local bar and got decently drunk with some guy named Tonio.
w00t
Mierda, Mierda Mierda Mierda
So, I can't describe this experience enough.
I walked into the living room on the way to the kitchen and turned the light on, and there's a dead body on the floor.
I just about pissed myself.
Okay, yea, it wasn't a dead body. Just a sculpture that's basically a mannequin wrapped in bubble wrap on the floor.
But it looks insanely real, and like a guy in a body bag.
If you've never forgotten about the dead body in bubblewrap wrapped in your living room and you walk into the room, you just don't understand.
I walked into the living room on the way to the kitchen and turned the light on, and there's a dead body on the floor.
I just about pissed myself.
Okay, yea, it wasn't a dead body. Just a sculpture that's basically a mannequin wrapped in bubble wrap on the floor.
But it looks insanely real, and like a guy in a body bag.
If you've never forgotten about the dead body in bubblewrap wrapped in your living room and you walk into the room, you just don't understand.
Irritations, o "Cosas que me molestan"
So, I've raved about the city and the things that I'm loving so far a lot.
Now it's time to get to the two things that are pissing me off.
First, meal time. There are two main meal times during the work day (which appears to be about 9-7, yea they work a hell of a lot longer than us at home. it's not fun). They are 2-4 and 4-6 with the assumption that the people eating at the 4-6 spot are either 2nd or 3rd shift people.
What this means though, is that nearly every restaurant in the city closes at 6. So when I get off around 7 or 8 (or later the first day) I have no where to eat.
Which leads me to my second problem, there are no damn supermarkets anywhere near me. Or markets, or anything that isn't a vendor that scares me just a little bit...haha.
But seriously, the food thing is ridiculous. I ended up paying $15 for dinner tonight...american. That's a lot at home, and patently ridiculous here.
I need to figure out where restaurants stay open later.
Now it's time to get to the two things that are pissing me off.
First, meal time. There are two main meal times during the work day (which appears to be about 9-7, yea they work a hell of a lot longer than us at home. it's not fun). They are 2-4 and 4-6 with the assumption that the people eating at the 4-6 spot are either 2nd or 3rd shift people.
What this means though, is that nearly every restaurant in the city closes at 6. So when I get off around 7 or 8 (or later the first day) I have no where to eat.
Which leads me to my second problem, there are no damn supermarkets anywhere near me. Or markets, or anything that isn't a vendor that scares me just a little bit...haha.
But seriously, the food thing is ridiculous. I ended up paying $15 for dinner tonight...american. That's a lot at home, and patently ridiculous here.
I need to figure out where restaurants stay open later.
18 June 2008
Impressiones Rd. 2
I'm beginning to get that spanish back pretty good, and it's awesome.
Impressions for today:
At night, that police presence I noticed on the roads is even more pronounced on the streets. And they are not friendly. People get the fuck out of their way...
For whatever reason, it appears that beer and liquor are not sold in the same stores (oh yea, I bought my first legal liquor ever...never again do I buy illegally! (although never getting carded is kinda anti-climatic, haha) I wonder what that's about.
Also, good tequila is fucking amazing. I knew this already, so why do I repeat it? Oh, maybe it has something to do with the 6 shots of tequila I had AT WORK today. And not like, partying.
1. As a welcome to the gallery after working in the morning at the apt
2+3. As a double shot at lunch
4. As a welcome to a potential client
5+6. With my relative and her gallery manager.
And I think I was behind most of the people in the gallery. Holy shit...haha. That's what I call social drinking.
If you try here, eating and drinking is SO CHEAP. I ate dinner tonight at this little dive (more on that in the next post..haha) where I had
1/4 chicken
Bowl of jalepeños
Mix of grilled cabbage and onions
6 tortillas
Sol Cerveza
All the picante hot sauce possible
Guess how much?
No SERIOUSLY! Guess!
25 pesos. Or about $2.35
Awesome.
Also, on the bad side. I've been warned repeatedly about "La Zona Rosa" and not going there at night. It's three blocks away.
And apparently...it's because of all the gays...
Oh well.
Impressions for today:
At night, that police presence I noticed on the roads is even more pronounced on the streets. And they are not friendly. People get the fuck out of their way...
For whatever reason, it appears that beer and liquor are not sold in the same stores (oh yea, I bought my first legal liquor ever...never again do I buy illegally! (although never getting carded is kinda anti-climatic, haha) I wonder what that's about.
Also, good tequila is fucking amazing. I knew this already, so why do I repeat it? Oh, maybe it has something to do with the 6 shots of tequila I had AT WORK today. And not like, partying.
1. As a welcome to the gallery after working in the morning at the apt
2+3. As a double shot at lunch
4. As a welcome to a potential client
5+6. With my relative and her gallery manager.
And I think I was behind most of the people in the gallery. Holy shit...haha. That's what I call social drinking.
If you try here, eating and drinking is SO CHEAP. I ate dinner tonight at this little dive (more on that in the next post..haha) where I had
1/4 chicken
Bowl of jalepeños
Mix of grilled cabbage and onions
6 tortillas
Sol Cerveza
All the picante hot sauce possible
Guess how much?
No SERIOUSLY! Guess!
25 pesos. Or about $2.35
Awesome.
Also, on the bad side. I've been warned repeatedly about "La Zona Rosa" and not going there at night. It's three blocks away.
And apparently...it's because of all the gays...
Oh well.
17 June 2008
First Day and First Impressions
So, this is my first day here in el Districto Federal de Los Estados Unidos de Mexico.
Yea, that's a mouthful. D.F. works well too. I have some pretty useless stories about what happened, who I talked to etc, but I think I really want to talk about what surprised me MOST on this, the 17th day of June, in the year of a lot of people's Lord 2008.
First, the thing that killed me straight out of the aeropuerto is traffic here. We all know about the smog in D.F. and how about the millions and millions of cars clogging every conceivable street. So I expected the long and crowded ride home. What I in absolutely no way expected was the way traffic moved. As in...there don't appear to be any "rules of the road" here. There are traffic lights, sure, but they're really more guidelines then set things in a lot of places. Also, it is unbelievably acceptable to run a red light so long as you speed up to it.
Let's just say the driver that picked me up was perhaps the best at that little red light trick, and one occasion we actually ended up going BEHIND a car that had started crossing perpendicularly...and legally. He was special.
I learned late tonight that the fact that I have a driver's license is also "wonderful" since I will be getting to drive my boss/relative around while one of the drivers gets a week off. So, if I don't make it home alive, you heard it here first...it's traffic related.
The other part of traffic that just kills me is merging around corners. Almost every street in the city is one way, so at corners (and particularly where more than 2 streets meet) you can pretty much turn onto any street from any of the available lanes (often times 3 or more). This involves ridiculous zig-zagging through the intersection, punctuated mainly by the fact that the lights are very short, so everyone gets off the blocks very fast when the light turns green.
Help.
Second was more related to my relative. I knew she was rich, but I uh, didn't really grasp the extent. The incredibly expensive gated house with art inside (lots of it) two drivers on staff, three cars and both a live-in cook and a nearly full-time maid.
Think about it. And that's not even including her gallery staff of maybe 10 people, including one woman whose entire job appears to be preparing cafe and other foodstuffs. Oh well.
Third, police presence. I cannot begin to exaggerate this. On the main thoroughfares, there AVERAGES a police car with lights flashing and two officers standing outside at EVERY intersection. Sometimes there's two. Not kidding. Even off the main roads, they're everywhere. But they are not traffic cops. You're not getting a speeding ticket from these guys very often. They control traffic, and more to the point, serve as a constant reminder that yes, the police are everywhere. At first I didn't like that. The police own this area of town.
Then I thought about it while at home alone in an apartment building blocks from some pretty terrible neighborhoods. I'm pretty okay with it.
Other random thoughts to round out the day:
1. It takes 6 different keys to get into my apartment. On two different key chains. And you must mix and match key chains. I'm not kidding you. Also, if I were to lose my keys in my apartment, I couldn't get out of it. And even if I managed to get out of it, I couldn't then get out of the BUILDING. At least it's hard to break in to?
2. No one drinks the water here. Not even the locals. Ever. Water bottles and water coolers only.
3. There is some serious segregation here amongst the poor and rich. Worse than any city I've ever been to.
4. I cannot even remotely begin to describe the size of this city. We flew over it for 15 minutes while entering the city. Unreal.
5. Basically every building here has a central courtyard that is open to the air and that requires you to utilize it to get around the building. And they have a rainy season. Really?
This looks like it'll be good. I'll prolly blog a lot, since I won't prolly go out for a couple weeks...and I don't currently have any pesos :)
Yea, that's a mouthful. D.F. works well too. I have some pretty useless stories about what happened, who I talked to etc, but I think I really want to talk about what surprised me MOST on this, the 17th day of June, in the year of a lot of people's Lord 2008.
First, the thing that killed me straight out of the aeropuerto is traffic here. We all know about the smog in D.F. and how about the millions and millions of cars clogging every conceivable street. So I expected the long and crowded ride home. What I in absolutely no way expected was the way traffic moved. As in...there don't appear to be any "rules of the road" here. There are traffic lights, sure, but they're really more guidelines then set things in a lot of places. Also, it is unbelievably acceptable to run a red light so long as you speed up to it.
Let's just say the driver that picked me up was perhaps the best at that little red light trick, and one occasion we actually ended up going BEHIND a car that had started crossing perpendicularly...and legally. He was special.
I learned late tonight that the fact that I have a driver's license is also "wonderful" since I will be getting to drive my boss/relative around while one of the drivers gets a week off. So, if I don't make it home alive, you heard it here first...it's traffic related.
The other part of traffic that just kills me is merging around corners. Almost every street in the city is one way, so at corners (and particularly where more than 2 streets meet) you can pretty much turn onto any street from any of the available lanes (often times 3 or more). This involves ridiculous zig-zagging through the intersection, punctuated mainly by the fact that the lights are very short, so everyone gets off the blocks very fast when the light turns green.
Help.
Second was more related to my relative. I knew she was rich, but I uh, didn't really grasp the extent. The incredibly expensive gated house with art inside (lots of it) two drivers on staff, three cars and both a live-in cook and a nearly full-time maid.
Think about it. And that's not even including her gallery staff of maybe 10 people, including one woman whose entire job appears to be preparing cafe and other foodstuffs. Oh well.
Third, police presence. I cannot begin to exaggerate this. On the main thoroughfares, there AVERAGES a police car with lights flashing and two officers standing outside at EVERY intersection. Sometimes there's two. Not kidding. Even off the main roads, they're everywhere. But they are not traffic cops. You're not getting a speeding ticket from these guys very often. They control traffic, and more to the point, serve as a constant reminder that yes, the police are everywhere. At first I didn't like that. The police own this area of town.
Then I thought about it while at home alone in an apartment building blocks from some pretty terrible neighborhoods. I'm pretty okay with it.
Other random thoughts to round out the day:
1. It takes 6 different keys to get into my apartment. On two different key chains. And you must mix and match key chains. I'm not kidding you. Also, if I were to lose my keys in my apartment, I couldn't get out of it. And even if I managed to get out of it, I couldn't then get out of the BUILDING. At least it's hard to break in to?
2. No one drinks the water here. Not even the locals. Ever. Water bottles and water coolers only.
3. There is some serious segregation here amongst the poor and rich. Worse than any city I've ever been to.
4. I cannot even remotely begin to describe the size of this city. We flew over it for 15 minutes while entering the city. Unreal.
5. Basically every building here has a central courtyard that is open to the air and that requires you to utilize it to get around the building. And they have a rainy season. Really?
This looks like it'll be good. I'll prolly blog a lot, since I won't prolly go out for a couple weeks...and I don't currently have any pesos :)
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