¡No mames!

Otra vez?? En serio??? After the traumatizing loss of my beloved pesos 2 weeks ago, I was nearing the end of my loan from the school and had about 250 pesos left to last me through last night. Knowing that I would need it for dinner with my dear friend Marlies, I stashed it in a pencil case along with some other precious belongings ($40 US, emergency credit card, etc) in my "stuff" drawer in my closet. Apparently this spot is not as conspicuous as I thought.

So around 6:00, my landlord stops by to examine my bedroom for curtain measurements. He's a nice enough guy... very hospitable, never doubted that he was an upstanding moral citizen until... he's up there unsupervised for about 10 minutes while I'm downstairs talking on skype with my sister. He comes down eventually and asserts his need for a measuring tape and goes back up. He leaves about 5 minutes later.

7:15. Marlies is coming to pick me up for sushi in 10 minutes. I go upstairs to muster the last of my precious cash. Alas!!! It's nowhere to be found. $40 and 250 pesos vanished. This obviously came as a serious blow to me after the 1st incident. I am still undecided about how to go about handling it.

Here are the facts:
1) I have not spent any US $ here
2) I am 99% sure that I'm not a crazy sleep gambler.
3) My landlord is the only person that had been in my room besides me since I put the money in the pencil case.

UGH. I just want to feel safe in my home and place of work. Lessons learned: trust no one!

Giant David in Roma

Walking around on Sunday led us to the cute D.F. neighborhood of Roma, discussed here in the NYT travel section. It was a gorgeous day. My spirits were lifted by the abundance of trees, European architecture, delicious cafes, and this tremendous remake of Michelangelo's David.

Menudo Sopa

Spent Saturday in Mexico City for a much needed night away from Pachuca. I went with a couple Mexican friends... we decided to go to a traditional Mexican restaurant to eat, drink a few beers, and watch the Mexico v Coast Rica futbol game. So the restaurant that they pick is known for their Menudo soup. And I'm thinking, oh goody, this is gonna rock, because even though I don't know what it is, they are raving about it. So we get there and they order a bunch of weird stuff that I've never heard of and we discuss the game, start on our cervezas, etc. When the food comes out I am a little weary of the soup because of the potent smell it is giving off but can't not try it after the hype, so I dig in. It's not bad at first, but eventually it is too overpowering to bear. It tasted very gamey- weird, I thought, for a soup. I examined more closely and decided that the key ingredient was some strange type of white noodle/rice. So amongst the Mexican's praise, I eat about 1/3 of my bowl of soup to be polite and not cause a cultural scene... I don't find out until yesterday, when I told an American friend of this experience, that Menudo soup's main ingredient is actually pig intestines. SICK!

Curt Crossley

The primary school director at the American School of Pachuca, Curt Crossley, passed away on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. Curt was also the recruiting coordinator for the foreign staff at our school and he was one of the main reasons why I felt so confident taking this job in January. Curt had been sick for about 3 weeks prior to his this. The news of his death came as somewhat of a shock, however, considering that the staff had been continually reassured of his return. Although I did not know Curt for a very long time, I considered him a friendly and competent boss and a good leader for the school. He was aware of the problems that we faced and did his best to accommodate teachers, students, and parents. It is a tremendous loss for the school and for his friends. The heap of legal boundaries and inability to contact his family has also been stressful for the administration and staff at school. I hope that these issues will be resolved in a timely matter so that a memorial service can be held and people can pay their respects. 

Weird Mexican habit

This is one of the stranger things I have encountered while in Mexico... their insistence on wearing medical face masks if they have even an inkling of sickness. From what I've gathered, it is not to prevent the spread of disease but rather to keep the cold air from getting into the body. They believe that the cold air will infiltrate and sabotage the weakened system so seeing people wearing the masks is common. When I first got to Mexico in January, the masks were much more visible since it was the height of the cold season, of course. Que raro. Here is a picture of a man with one such mask.

Concha y Toro

Estas lista?? One of the perks of living in the Central/South America regions is easy access to this sentimental vino. The CabSav is more than mediocre compared to wines I drank in the States and OUTSTANDING compared to wines I have encountered while in Mexico. Lucky for me they sell 4 packs of this delightful treat at the neighborhood Sam's Club for a mere 230 pesos.

R.I.P. Paycheck

¡Esta cabron!

Mistake of the year... leaving envelope holding my cash "paycheck" in my office over the weekend and thinking that a locked door in a locked school would keep out heartless thieves. Booooohooooo. It's gone and there's nothing I can do about it. If it were a check, I'd get the school to cancel it and print out a new one. Not gonna happen. Since I don't have an FM3 (legal work permit) here in Mexico, I can't get a Mexican bank account, which means that I can't cash checks, which means that I am paid in cash every 2 weeks. Now my peso salary might not be much to the average American but to me it's like GOLD... especially on the brink of Spring Break when the one and only Carlota is coming to visit. Not that we wouldn't have the best of times porching it and drinking cheap booze but still. I need a little spice in my life from time to time and I had big vacay plans for the break. All I can really say is ¡Que triste! and I hope that those responsible are using my hard-earned cash to feed needy children and not for Gucci velour pantsuits.

MX BEAT 2009

MX Beat 2009: an amazing festival in Mexico City this weekend featuring such acts as Vampire Weekend, N.E.R.D., Primal Scream, Black Kids, Calvin Harris and Etienne de Crecéy. Read about the many more artists here.

I went to the festival with a few friends from Pachuca. The music was incredible especially considering my deprivation of this sort of event since coming south of the border. People were clad in hipster attire and I couldn't resist! Yay for plaid shirts and skinny jeans. But we were definitely still in Mexico... tacos were about the only snacks you could get, beers were $1, and Pharrell was enticing the crowd with chants of me gusta. I dug the electronic tent a lot although I can't say which artists were which in there. Vampire Weekend was fantastic live as I suspected they would be... they played a new song, White Sky, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. 

My favorite act of the night was Calvin Harris, an electronic genius and recently added to my top 5 favorite artists of the month. I just can't get enough of Disco Heat. Listen to it here. Glorious!  The music and light show were incredible even sans mind-inducing drogas. Check out the state of the art cube technology of Etienne de Crecéy here. Hot damn! Our group had amazing dance skills too, especially by the end of the night. I was pleased to meet some fellow crazed dancers of Mexican descent ;)

All in all an amazing weekend. Looking forward to MX BEAT 2010!

But it's worth it...

So I just realized that my past 3 post have been somewhat negative and that's the last thing that I want to convey about this experience. I am solely dealing with the little everyday things that are a nuisance when living abroad in a country where you don't have any native connections and don't fully speak the language. Here's a little insight as to why I do it: my job is incredible~ I have more freedom than any beginning teacher should but I embrace it and have enjoyed being creative and learning from my co-workers; the kids are cute as hell and most of them still have an incredible yearning to learn which is encouraging in light of the horror stories I have heard throughout grad school of US Public Schools and the students uncanny ability to ignore their need for an education; although I feel like I am continually playing in a sports game that I am terrible at, I can tell that I am learning more Spanish which just might be sticking this time; and the people I have met here thus far have exceeded my expectations to the point that all I have to complain about are stinky smells and terrible customer service... ha! or as they say here, je!

Cablecom

Cablecom: an incompetent Mexican cable company ready and willing to mess with any gringo in sight. So I splurged on an abroad TV to nurse my hungover days and accompany my morning coffee time. Little did I know that getting cable would take an entire month. It all began one afternoon back in the beginning of February when the previous tenant and I went to the cable company to transfer his bill to my name. No, no, no. Toooo complicated. But he had already paid through June so it was vale la pena... I guess. 2 hours later we leave the Cablecom store with a glimmer of hope that someone will come set up my box, etc. 2 weeks roll by. My native Spanish speaking friend calls them to inquire. Oh, you need a cable box? We'll send someone over next week. Next week: friend calls again. We'll be there at 4 on Thursday. Fine. 4 on Thursday it is. 4 on Thursday: nada. 5 on Thursday: We were there, where were you? Oh no ya don't! They did. And on we go until finally, TODAY, MARCH 12th, I get my cable box. Content at last and the only thing on that I can understand is Dora the Explorer.

Rio Stank

This "river" runs through Pachuca carrying the resident sewage and such. Talk about poo water. I walk down this road to get to school every morning. Let's just say the wafts are an uninvited wake up call...

¡Que pena!

Two giant pains in my ass...

1) The plumbing system is so bad in Mexico that
people are expected to throw all of their t.p. into little trashcans next to the toilet. It was a hard habit to adopt but I have finally gotten it down. No clogged toilets for this chica!

2) Every time I take a shower I have to go outside to turn my furnace on high power... unless I want an ice cold shower that is.

Fantasy books

So I have just started the 4th book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn. What is it about fantasy books that's so damn addicting? I guess we all just have an inner yearning for the unnatural... who doesn't want to read minds, fly, see the future, and constantly battle evil? I wouldn't want to have access to everyone's mind though~ think Mel Gibson in What Women Want~ yikes! Some things are better left unknown. Anyway, I'll let you know how it turns out. Right now, I'm rooting for Jacob Black. Bella, do you really want to live forever?? I don't care if you're gonna be able to spend forever with your "one true love." In fact, that almost makes it worse. We all know the honeymoon phase fades out pretty quickly...

"Pachuca Sunset"

Seems they could have made a song for this is in addition to Pachuca Sunrise... And ps- those pills that turn into mini sponges things might just be one of my favorite things EVER.

Mexico otra vez

Another thing I forgot to mention: all Mexicans refer to Mexico City as "Mexico" or "D.F." for Distrito Federal. Good to know for the future tourist. So my second trip to the capital city was a little more saucy. I went with two of my best friends here, Molly & Marlies, also teachers at ASP. We spent our first day walking around the neighborhood of Condesa where we also went out. Marlies's friend from high school has been dotting around Mexico doing environmental research so she met up with us for dinner. Her friend from college came along too. By the end of dinner, Molly and I were the only ones still standing... Marlies and the two friends were sick with food poisoning of some sort and headed home. Molly and I proceeded to go out - que buenas ondas.

The next day we went shopping, took a stroll through Chupultepec Park. Another big & beautiful park dedicated to relaxation and cultural enrichment. Next we took off to Coyoacan Market where we were enthralled by hippy jewlery, tapestries, and steaming cups of jalapeno corn. Mmmmmm, delicioso. Beware the fact that there are not many bathrooms in this general area...

My new favorite drink: Michiladas

¡Que Rico! Makes drinking beer literally 3 times better! Why haven't Americans thought of this?? I actually get sad drinking them because they are gone so quickly. Please try if you can find the ingredients. They are as follows- a few dabs of each: Worcestershire Sauce, Jugo Maggi (seasoning sauce with salt, spices and pepper), Valentina Salsa Picante (hot sauce), and Tajin Clasico (hot pepper flakes with lime and salt) & a splash of lime juice. Line the rim of your glass with salt, add the beer of your choice- Indio is the best I've tried so far- and ENJOY! My dangerous new habit is having one on the terrace when I get home from work... which usually leads to having two on the terrace when I get home from work... which usually leads to...

Nolita la gatita

For all you cat haters out there, get over it. They are not that bad... maybe you just can't deal with an animal being almost as cool and independent as you are. I know dogs are pretty grand too but you don't have to choose one or the other. I have wanted a kitty for some time now and decided to bite the bullet here in Mexico where street dogs and cats are as prevalent as taco stands. I've had her for about 6 weeks now and she has already doubled in size. I named her Nolita after the neighborhood in NYC... I thought of it as a reminder of home with a Spanish twist. Only after the first week of saying NO did I realize that this may not have been the best name choice but I decided to stick with it and she seems to be responding in the right ways most of the time...

Here are some fun Nolita facts

Nicknames: Noli, Little Baby (spoken with a very Southern accent)

Nickname when bad: Nolito

Breed: Siamese & Tabby mix

Cutest habit: Curling up on my chest when I am watching TV

Most annoying habit: Crying for food at 7am on the weekends...

Favorite pastime: Chasing flies, laying in the sun

Favorite human food: Mac & Cheese, cereal

Coco Bongo

Have you ever been so bored at a bar that you didn't know what to do with yourself so you just drank yourself silly? Not that we didn't do that, but another perk of Cancun is that it provides endless amounts of while-drinking entertainment. You thought that the drunk and desperate people were enough, right? Wrong. D-Rock's club of choice, Coco Bongo, provides hours of self-made shows featuring such acts as Beyonce, Prince, Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones, even a show down between Spiderman and the Green Goblin himself. It was no joke. I was happy as a clam... Here are a few photos to give you a glimpse of the ridiculousness. Thanks D!!

Cancun

So my best guy friend D-Rock sends me this email not more than a month after my arrival in Mehico...

"So I've been doing some research on my mexican excursion (apparently all I do now is plan vacations). I have a bajillion amex points that I think I can use. Which means that if you can get yourself there, hotel will be totally taken care of for us."

How could I refuse such an offer... done and done. But not without a few minor complications.

1st, I don't book until he has booked his flight just in case something comes up and he can't go... Still doesn't prevent him from switching the weekend on me and forcing me to go through complicated Spanish hoops to change my flight. We all know those airline people can be a pain in the arse. Imagine if you are not fluent in their language... So I guilt trip D-Rock into doing my dirty work for me... Here's an excerpt of an email he sent me shortly after contacting my airline.

"Man oh man do I hate Mexican airlines now!! Avisca is absolutely HILARIOUS. I'm convinced it's literally the size of our own apartment and they do as much day-drinking as we did during new years week while they are booking flights. They hung up on me accidentally six times and then decided to leave me on perma-hold the other three times. Then when they finally picked up they told me it'd cost an extra 300 bucks to change your flight, but that we could wait another 11 hours because it MIGHT be cheaper then. Hilarious. So Big D got a little creative."

We wound up booking a cheaper flight through orbitz and got a refund on that flight. It was well worth all the trouble in the end. Maybe one of the best vacays ever. Here is the beautiful view from ME HOTEL where we stayed.

Mexico D.F.

My first trip to Mexico City was pretty G-rated. A couple of friends and I stayed near the Zocalo, a massive concrete square signed with a giant Mexican flag. A cathedral marks one side of the square, behind which ruins from the Templo Mayor were unearthed and are on display for all to see. Pretty cool to see the two structures side by side, actually. We spent the first day there walking around in search of black tennis shoes for yours truly and enjoying a plethora of non-Mexican foods only available in the big city. ha. The second day that we were there we visited the Diego Rivera Mural museum and walked around one of the big parks. The presence of parks like this reminded me of time spent in Argentina... unfortunately, it seems too late for Americans to catch on to this beautiful big city trend... 

Flip that casa

So the new and improved living situation had not quite reached its full potential. When I moved in, it was adorned with florescent green walls, pale pink victorian style couches, and an array of depressing telephone wire paintings created by 2 tenants prior. hmmm. some work had to be done. I hit up Home Depot for paint and other renovating supplies- a few plants, a rug, fabric to cover the couches, an electric stapler to do so, a paint tray, plastic sheet to put on the floor, and PAINT of course- almond sunshine I think I chose. Picking the color was a trip- the HD employees were quite impressed with my impeccable pronunciation of the paint color names. I made a show of it- butterscotch, oatmeal, springtime yellow, beige mist, golden showers, etc. but I wouldn't quit my day job- how to mix and apply the paint was a bit more difficult. I eventually got all of the details down, though, and was on my way. Here is the before and after. Yay!

Mi(s) apartamento(s)

When I first arrived in Pachuca I was set up in one part of a triplex (?) house. It was on the ground floor- nice size I thought- large bedroom, small chilling room, kitchen and full bathroom. With the 50 lb, 2 bag limitation for what I could bring with me from the USA, it was more than enough room. It was weird, therefore, when at a meeting with mi jefe at school, the first thing thing he does is apologize for the size of my apartment...  Are the other teachers hooked up with a mansion of some sort? I was more than satisfied, especially coming from Manhattan. But upon meeting a few other teachers and visiting their casas, I realized that comparatively I had gotten the short end of the stick. Oh well, I thought. Until... the problem with this apartment was that it didn't get much natural sunlight. You see, most houses in Mexico (and South America for that matter) are enclosed by some sort of concrete or fence wall (often with barbed wire as well). Don't ask me what they are so afraid of but a deadbolt just will not do. So this wall was threatening to plant the seeds of seasonal affective disorder if I didn't think fast... Luckily, my upstairs neighbor, Eric, a New York native with a nasty knack for bluntness, was moving and I could take his sunlight filled, view-riffic, terrace included apartment instead. Here are some photos of the old place~ me falta sol!

La Vida Mexicana

Now that I'm finally settled in Pachuca, it's time to start blogging about it, right? 

I have had an interesting run since this summer when I decided to pack up and move from DC to NYC. Subletting from friends in Soho led to couching it with friends in Brooklyn and Sullivan St. Add to the mix waitressing at a Mexican Restaurant on the upper west side, online grad school, and taking advantage of the city that never sleeps and I had quite the full plate. A series of unfortunate events led me to move to Richmond, Virginia with my sister from November-December 2008 where I cleared my head and decided it was time to make some career moves. A few days of online applications and pestering international schools for jobs led me to Pachuca, Mexico, a city of about 300,000 just north of Mexico City in the state of Hidalgo. Here is a bird's eye view...

Adios New York

New Year's Eve 2008-2009 out with a bang! Time to head south of the border.

Adios amigos! I'll miss you guys ;)