anika in mexico

Friday!
School was long and boring again. I got kind of frustrated because my professor doesn’t like to simply correct me when I make a mistake, but she drags it out, asking again and again if I really answered what I answered, with the obvious tone to her voice that I am incorrect. She expects that I’ll catch on and self-correct my mistake, but clearly if I think I have the right answer, even if I know it’s wrong, I’m just not getting it. So I got frustrated, and then kind of “turned off” and she finally corrected my mistake, which then seemed obvious–I already did know the grammar rule I’d gotten wrong, I was just in a corner with the answer I’d provided. So then because I’d gotten it wrong, she had to go through the entire grammar lesson that I already knew so she would feel confident that I’d learned it.

When I arrived at school no one was in the office. And no one showed up. So we moved to the terrace area where we found a semi-quiet area. It was still really noisy because the city is very noisy, but we didn’t have to stay there long anyway. We were soon met by a guy who took us to an alternative place to have class. The room was much quieter than our regular room (which has a window that faces a busy road, and is far from sound-proof), but it didn’t have any ventilation, so it was really stuffy.

Not only that, I was feeling a little out of it. My head felt a little cloudy, and I was tired, and my emotions were right up at the surface. If she hadn’t eased off when she did, I’m sure I would have started crying just cause I do that sometimes.

Stuffy room + stuffy head + stuffy professor = annoyed and frustrated Anika. Overall it was a morning fit to be a Monday, but it was friday, so at least I had the weekend to look forward to.

Friday is family dinner day. Everyone comes over to the house where I’m staying and eats together. We usually gather by around 3 or 4. This time it was me, Jenny, Walter, Sigrid, Karin, Sven, Tere, and Sabrina was hanging around although she didn’t eat with us (she’s only 2 and is more interested in playing with dolls than formal dinners).

The dinner was good–soup, of course, to start with, then chicken with mushrooms, mixed veggies, potatoes, and salad. Raspberry mousse for dessert.

After dinner I played with Sabrina and Adrianna a bit (Adrianna is Reina’s 10 year old daughter). We somehow ended upstairs in my room, and Adrianna noticed my markers, and so we drew a little bit, but what she really took interest in was my computer. I loaded up photoshop and illustrator and she played around on it all afternoon, even when I had to get ready to go out that night, and even when Siggy came over and hung out with me in my room and we talked about stuff.

So I got ready to go to the Lucha Libre! Chucho had gotten tickets for everyone a few days earlier. He was going to pick me up at first, but since Siggy had showed up, it made more sense for she and I to go togther, which was cool because it also afforded us extra time to just hang out and chat for a bit. At one point Pancho called Siggy and said that he was outside her house, but she was over at my house, so then he drove over here. He’d apparently been studying and got bored, so just drove on over. We all hung out together in the formal sitting room downstairs and we laughed so much and so loudly that it prompted our “neighbors” (my aunts who were in the small room next door playing cards) to get up and close our door. Oops.

Eventually we had to mosey on. It was raining by that time, but the traffic wasn’t too bad, so we got there in plenty of time. We actually got there first which meant that we didn’t have tickets to get in. The lucha libre is not in the friendliest, classiest part of town, so Siggy worked her magic because she knows one of the announcers of the Lucha Libre, so somehow we managed to get through security without being searched, which was good because as I noticed, they were taking away cameras. They could be checked so you could get them back at the end of the show, but still, I was glad that I didn’t have to hand it over, even for the short-term.

So we got to hang out in the limbo area. Not inside, but also not outside. Protected from the rain, and protected by our new security guard friends. One asked me tons of questions about salsa dancing–if I liked to dance, if I enjoyed the music, if I’d gone dancing in the city, etc. Each time he’d ask a salsa question, he’d do a little solo-salsa-dance-in-place. After each question, I just nodded, smiled, and said, “si!” I think he was very entertained by himself.

So eventually Chucho and the tickets showed up. We went up to our seats. Not the best in the house, but not too shabby either. Definitely got a good enough view of the action.

It was a very theatrical, choreographed, entertaining performance. People told me it was really different than the WWE wrestling we have in the states, but honestly, I don’t know how different it really is. Both are very acrobatic and with predetermined endings. Not all wrestlers wore a mask, most were burly and oily and greezy, and there was a lot of drama leading up to and even during or after the matches. Very similar to American wrestling in a lot of ways. I’m glad I went, though I don’t know if I’d want to repeat the experience, unless someone from out of town wanted to go see it. Then I could buy the lucha libre wrestler head key chain that I kind of wanted to get.

I decided to go home right after the match with Siggy. The cloudy feeling in my head from earlier that day was still there, and some scratchiness had settled in my throat. Plus I was just really tired for some reason.

I went right to bed.

written on 08.14.2007

I woke up Sunday at the ranch with a terrible tummy ache. There wasn’t much I could do except be miserable and try to achieve a zen like state while sitting in the shade on the porch. I guess my stomach is still not used to all the Mexican food, but I’ve also noticed that in general people here don’t tend to be meticulous about the storage and care of food.

I discovered the open mustard and mayo, not in the fridge, but on the pantry shelf at my house here. I decided to give the mustard a shot, but I’m going to steer clear of that mayonnaise. They also keep eggs out of the fridge. Certainly, they aren’t basking in the hot sun, but still, I’m just so used to refridgerating eggs, and also bread. It just keeps the stuff from going bad as quickly. With the eggs I reasoned that maybe they have a source where they get really fresh eggs, so it doesn’t matter if they are kept in ambient temperatures, but I also can’t help but think that we are in Mexico City, and I don’t see lots of chickens running around in back yards providing fresh eggs to interested parties.

But whatever it was that I ate that brought on the tummy aches and quakes, I was no happy camper that morning at the ranch. It was another beautiful day, but I couldn’t take it all in. When breakfast got started, I had to retreat to my bedroom as even the smells were making me queasy. While everyone ate a nice breakfast outside, I opted for a frigid, low-pressure shower. Not ideal, but it really helped me feel better, and the rest of the day was one long slow progression towards feeling ok again.

I rode back in Siggy’s car with Pollo and Chucho. Chucho told me to tell the truth: that I’d probably had a really boring time with everything and everyone. I said no, that I’d had an awesome time; it was really so much fun, but that this morning I’d really been feeling crummy. This seemed to appease him, so then he was happy again, telling more stories. Eventually the stories blended into Spanish conversations with Siggy, and I was glad to have the chance to just sit and be quiet and enjoy the countryside on the way back to town.

We arrived a bit before 7pm. Siggy came in, and we were both distressed to learn that Sigrid had fallen friday afternoon and hit her head. When anyone tells the story, Leonardo was the one to come to the rescue, and he acted very effectively, putting his first aid class to good use. There was a lot of blood all over the place, including all over Sigrid. They drove her to the hospital where she was soon fixed up with 8 stitches.

Although a bit battered and bruised, she’s otherwise ok, which is a great relief to everyone. Honestly in someways her mind seems sharper than ever. Sure, she’s still in pain and frustrated by the whole thing, but at least her spirits are up. I’ve offered to help her with several things since I got back and she seems truly grateful for my offer, even if she doesn’t accept the help. Today when I suggested I read to her from “our book” her eyes lit up and she exclaimed, “yes that’s a great idea!”

But I digress. 7pm, back from the ranch, got the bad news about Sigrid, but relieved she’s ok, I was totally exhausted. By the time I got to my room alone, it was 7:30 and I thought, “oh, i’ll just lie down for like half an hour.”

I started my Spanish language class yesterday! I think it’ll be really good. Teocrito was only 15 minutes late arriving to take me to school. Yesterday there was only one other person in my class, and coincidentally, she was American and also has an apartment in D.C. and here she also lives in Las Lomas, so probably is near me here! Her name is Megan and she’s been in Mexico City for 4 years, but hasn’t really learned much Spanish. I think it’s just so easy to get by because most people have some English and they love to practice. Plus she also said that her friends would get frustrated with her slow Spanish speaking pace, so it’s just easier to speak english.

Our profesora, Angelica told us we should always ask questions and practice practice practice.

After the first class I was pretty tired and not sure what to do. There were a couple of things that I could have done, but I was still feeling pretty crummy in general, so I just sat on a bench on campus and watched the people, noting that the girls really wear an interesting variety of shoes. My only task was to get home. So I walked to the taxi stand that Teocrito had showed me before dropping me off that morning. I checked my facts and then got a cab. It really wasn’t too difficult as the attendent there helped decipher the map Teocrito had drawn for me. I was home in a few minutes and it only cost me $2.50 which apparently was cheaper than it should have been if I’d actually taken a sitio taxi. I looked it up and I’d actually taken a libre taxi which are a bit less safe, but safer than taking just any taxi off the street.

I was fairly well beat by the time I got home, so I just had a nap and then some lunch and then read some and eventually did my homework (so weird that I actually have homework). Sigrid arranged that I would join Saskia and Pancho the next day to go to El Museo Nacional de Arte.

Today Teocrito picked me up again, this time he was 10 minutes EARLY!! I wasn’t counting on that at all and I ended up making him wait for 10 minutes. Ah well, he was still in good spirits and immediately began asking questions of me to answer in Spanish.

Today we were joined by another student, Take (Tah-kay) who is from Japan but spent a number of years in the U.S. and went to Cornell for Architecture. He’s also 28 and we discovered that his birthday is a mere 6 days before mine. He’s working for a small firm under a fairly famous architect here in Mexico City. He hasn’t had any formal training in Spanish, but he’s been studying on his own for 8 months, and he really does speak very well. He said that he hasn’t even tried Japanese food here, so I think maybe I’ll take his lead and do the same.

Today Megan mentioned that she has some artist type friends who she could ask about possible classes in the city for me to take. She seems very friendly and helpful.

Class was ok, but it was a bit of a repeat from yesterday since Take was new (he actually went to the first level class yesterday, but he already knew too much since he’d been learning on his own).

After class I sat on the same bench in the center of campus as the day before and continued a little sketching I’d started the day before. I texted Pancho who agreed to pick me up on the way to Saskia’s. We met Saskia at her place. She lives in this amazing condo. Apparently lots of important people live there. She has an incredible view of the city from the sitting room.

Soon we were off to the Museum. It was really interesting to see the progression of Mexican art, but in some ways I’d love to see more contemporary stuff as much of the older painting is very similar to what was going on in Europe, at least from a cursory survey. There was one artist, Angel Zagarra or Zaragga or Zarraga. He did some really interesting and unique figure paintings that were very stylized and reflected the Art Deco style going on at the time. I’ll have to find out some more information about that guy.

Afterwards we went back to Saskia’s and then Pancho took me right back to my house.

I was starving, so as soon as I got home I made a sandwich. Sigrid was out, which was kind of nice to just have the runn of the place and not have her making sure I’d eaten enough, or not to have her tell me to put on another sweater or to close the window. She actually did all that later, but that’s another story. I had a nice sandwich and some beet salad.

Tonight I went and saw Reservoir Dogs at this place that isn’t an actual theater, but usually has bands play, and you can also eat and drink there. It was pretty cool, but the chairs weren’t so comfortable.

When I got home it was raining and of course the bottom lock got stuck again. Siggy was the valient one to hop over the gate this time.

Then I went straight to bed since mornings always seem to come too soon when you have to get up early.

I woke up today and still felt awful. The dogs were yowling all night and it really made it difficult to sleep, plus the fact that I also can’t breathe through my nose doesn’t help matters. Luckily it seems the neighbors have returned from their month-long vacation, so hopefully the dogs will be inside and quiet tonight.

I guess Reyna’s day off is Sunday. I fiddled with Sigrid in the kitchen to make breakfast. I told her I just wanted to go upstairs and read or do something quiet. I just ended up sitting in a chair and basically staring at the walls, thinking a bit. The thought occurred to me that being deep in ones thoughts can be a terrible place to be. Not sure why; my thoughts weren’t particularly terrible at the time, it was just something that I thought of.

Karin came to pick us up around 1 to get to Erwin’s birthday party around 1:30. I seriously considered bowing out gracefully, but in the end I’m glad I went. We were there before almost everyone else, which gave me a good opportunity to check out the house, the garden and the view. Apparently in the past all you could see from the back yard was mostly just trees and rolling hills and maybe a few other houses, but now there are buildings, tall, short, fat, skinny, attractive, and ugly, covering the hillsides.

I met lots of new family, including the baby Annika. She’s cute. She has a very round face/head. But she’s only 6 months old so there’s not much to tell really.

I noticed that all the little girls have pierced ears. Even Annika, the youngest. Sabrina who was almost 3 and Daniella who is around 6 also had pierced ears. Personally I think it’s a little barbaric to pierce the ears of such a young child. First of all, the hole will grow out considerably as the ear lobe gets bigger. Secondly, it just looks a little over-done to see an infant with gold studs. And thirdly, how do you know that the girl would want to have her ears pierced if given the choice? Certainly I wanted to have it done, but I was 12, and mum threatened to make me wait until I was 18. When she let me go ahead and do it, it was a really special and memorable event, and it’s not like it really hurts. To each his own I suppose.

The party was great fun. I didn’t participate too much since I wasn’t feeling well, but it was really nice to see such a large family having such a good time together. They had tamale pie which I didn’t try since I thought it would be too much for my stomach to handle, but I had a nice big salad, and also tried several of the different cakes, my favorite was the “Impossible Cake”: Chocolate cake with a flan topping and caheta and nuts over all of it. Truly impossible to resist. The pflaumen kuchen was so-so since the plums were really sour, but the cake part was really well done. There was this other cake which looked good but didn’t taste like much.

After the party we went to see a movie which seems like the thing to do on Sundays and Wednesdays. We saw “Sin Reservas” with Catherine Zeta Jones and some dude and that little girl from Little Miss Sunshine. It was really rather ho-hum. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen, but nothing ever did. Even when you expected the some interesting conflict that and makes the relationship confused and rocky, it was mostly just lame. I suppose it was a good Sunday movie though.

I start school tomorrow and Teocrito is going to pick me up at 8:30 which means I’ll probably have to wait for about a half an hour, but I’d rather do that than take a taxi there, though I’ll likely have to take a taxi back home.

Wednesay I went with Sigrid to her College. It’s very big, and she says there is never enough parking when school is in session. With registration still going on, we didn’t have a problem finding a spot. I was able to check my email and check my favorite sites for a long time while Siggy took care of some things at her work and with her professors. She was worried I would get bored, but really I can keep myself occupied as long as I need to on the internet.

She let me drive her car back to her house. I was a little nervous just because, you know, it’s Mexico City, but it really wasn’t too bad, even when it got a little “crazy”. People don’t follow the traffic rules most of the time, but everyone on the road doesn’t follow the rules, so in a way there’s this collective unconscious that makes things flow pretty smoothly. Everyone’s almost expecting you to pull some crazy maneuver to get where you need to go, and even if they get upset by it, it’s very fleeting. Horns aren’t used as a way to actually alert others, but instead are a great way to relieve some stress when you are in a hurry and things aren’t moving.

After the drive home we ate lunch at Siggy’s parent’s place. I really wasn’t much in the mood for food, but I ate it anyway. It was good, but then I was pretty tired, so Siggy let me go to her room to take a nap. I slept for 2 hours.

We then fought traffic to get to this really beautifully designed mall that has all the really high end stores. They also have a movie theater and we were going to meet Siggy’s friends to see Harry Potter. I really thought it was going to be dubbed in Spanish, but it wasn’t: just subtitles. I actually really enjoyed watching it. Afterwards her friends wanted to go somewhere else and eat. Still not so much of an appetite, but I agreed to go along. I tried an empanada con jamon y queso, but the filling tasted a bit too much like cat food for my palate, so I gave half of it to Fernando, Siggy’s maybe gay friend. He agreed that it tasted a bit odd. Then I nibbled on the left over bread from the fondue that Pancho and Fernando ordered, but didn’t order anything else.

I got home fairly late considering that I had to be up kind of early to get to the school to take my placement test and register for my class. The bottom lock was totally stuck, but luckily Siggy’s friend Santiago was there. He’s quite spry and in no time he hopped the fence and let me in. I went right to bed, but morning still came too soon.

I rolled myself out of bed and was ready promptly at 9 when Siggy told me she would call. She didn’t call until 9:30, and then it was to say that instead of her taking me, her father would drop me off and then I could take the bus or a taxi home. In retrospect, it’s really not a big deal, but for some reason, at the time, it really threw me.

If I’d known that the day before, I could have easily gotten all the information and felt confident about finding my way. But I didn’t. I was not feeling well and then also totally overwhelmed by the task in front of me.

Finally it was decided that Teocrito would indeed pick me up and take me to get the little photos taken that I needed to bring with me in order to register, then drop me at the school where I’d just have to figure things out.

Teocrito showed up earlier than I expected, and it took me several minutes to gather all my stuff and myself together, but I was soon out the door as quickly as I could have been. Perhaps he was a bit annoyed that I kept him waiting, but soon he warmed up, and I eventually kind of snapped out of my weird mood.

Teocrito was actually a great help. He didn’t just dump me on the sidewalk, but instead he asked the security guard where I should go, which was not on the main campus, but down a block to the right at La Casa Rosa. It was literally a pink house. He then parked and walked inside with me. He even sat and waited while I had a conversation in Spanish with the profesora. When we were going to start the written test, I asked him if he wanted to leave, and he came over and asked the lady a bunch of questions until he felt satisfied, and then he left.

I was really feeling kind of out of it, but I managed to get through 3 pages of the test confidently. Then my confidence swayed, and after struggling to remember irregular past-tense conjugations of verbs I finally said that I didn’t want to finish. So I placed somewhere between the 1st and second levels. Because of that, I’m going to take the semi-intensive course rather than the intensive course in which I’d have to start from the very beginning with numbers and the alphabet and all.

I’ll be starting class this Monday, and so I’ll be here for at least another 3 weeks.

After the placement test I had to pay $2,700 pesos (about $270 USD). I literally had $2,600 pesos, so I went to the atm, but when I was there I realized I’d left my atm card in my desk rather than toting it around with me everywhere, as my guide book suggested. So I called Siggy and she had to bring me $100 pesos which she did within a half hour, also picking me up. Santiago was with her since he had borrowed the car overnight and needed a lift to Polanco.

After dropping him off we went to buy me a spanish-english dictionary and a map of mexico city (which I now see is practically useless for me because the magnified maps of the two parts of the city where I’ll be spending the most time cut off right at my street, or right at my school). While at Sanborn’s we got a call from her mom and we had to walk (what seemed a long way in my weakend condition) to buy a kilo of limones and a cake. We stopped at some point and got a Chai Latte which really didn’t agree with me. By the end of our excursion I was feeling really terrible, so I had Siggy drop me off at home rather than go to her house for more food which I so didn’t want to eat at that point.

I got home and just slept. Somehow I managed to pull myself together for Karin’s party but I was not feeling 100% at all. I wrapped her purse in tissue paper and made these really cute little flowers also out of tissue paper. I was very proud of my wrapping job. When I handed it to her she said, “oh, well this must be a purse” and then unceremoniously unwrapped the thing and said, “oh yes, it’s very nice”. I suppose it’s her gift and she can do with it what she wants, but I would have appreciated a little more tact if not ceremony.

The party was ok, but I didn’t eat anything; just water and a bit of tea at the end of the night. I met these 2 girls from Germany. I think one of their names was Anna, but don’t remember the other. One was really friendly and I talked with her a lot. The other also seemed friendly but didn’t say much. I think she understood everything I said in English but wasn’t comfortable speaking it, like I am with Spanish. After 11:30 I finally got the chance to sneak off and lie down for a bit in Siggy’s bed. We left by around midnight, and by then I felt really quite out of it.

Today I’ve just been sick and taking it easy. Karin came in at about 10:30 and gave me some kind of tonic that I am to gargle and drink 3x a day. It’s ok and very mediciney tasting, but I don’t think it’s working any magic. I played some solitaire while Sigrid went to the garden to tell the gardener what to do. I made some more tissue paper flowers, this time with more variations that the ones I made for Karin’s presents. I read some in my text book, and looked up some spanish words, but mostly just took it easy and rested. Tomorrow I’m supposed to go to Metepec with Sigrid and then go look for a car with Teocrito, but we’ll see how I feel. I don’t want to push it.

Today I rested for most of the morning, reading “Memories of My Melancholy Whores” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Siggy and Karin came over for lunch, then Sigs and I went to the little area where there are some shops and a Starbucks nearby where I could check my email. I also went to office depot and got some tape and scissors.

I played cards with Sigrid and she complained that I kept “blowing” air on her; she’s concerned that I will get her sick again. But I wasn’t really meaning to do it. I was just breathing, but I couldn’t breathe through my nose, so I guess it was a more directed flow of air that she could feel. As if it made a difference.

They are so superstitious about what causes illness over here. It’s not that you just catch a bug or a parasite, but there are certain foods that will surely make you ill, no matter what you do. If you have Tacos al Pastor, then you’ll get sick. If you have the chicharrones from the vendors in the park, you’ll get sick. If you are outside without a sweater and one cold breeze gives you goosebumps, your throat will definitely hurt the next day. It has to have a concrete, if not far-out reason why you get sick. It couldn’t possibly be because every other person in their family got sick after they all hung out together for a week.

Most recently Siggy got sick with fever and all, and instead of just a flu, it had to be the sinister pork in the tacos that did her wrong. And instead of me catching the virus Siggy had (I pretty much had all the same symptoms), of course I was ill because of the chicharrones I indulged in. When I had a sore throat the second day it was because I don’t bring sweaters with me and I let myself get cold. Sigrid swears this is the case, and even though I actually always do bring a sweater with me, I didn’t want to push the point and instead just nodded and smiled, agreeing with her old-wives tale.

Playing cards with Sigrid is kind of fun because I get to learn some new games which are pretty good ones, both solitaires and multiple player games. It’s funny though because she really has a hard time seeing, and sometimes she’s just so pleased with a moved she’s made, even though it’s actually the wrong card, I let her do it anyway. What difference does it make in the long run?