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 :)