anika in mexico

No school today! I took the day off in order to attend Siggy’s talk at a Conference at the UNAM. Her talk began at 8am though, so she picked me up at 6:45am to give us plenty of time to get there. It was eeeearly, but it was still better than going to class.

We picked up Saskia and also Pancho who was vital to the plan because none of us girls had the faintest idea of how to get to the lecture hall where the conference was, but Pancho is very familiar with the campus, so he directed us, and we got there with no problem. We even somehow managed to get into the student parking lot with the help of a little sweet talk from Siggy to the parking attendant.

Chucho met up with us. We all walked to the hall, and soon were established in our seats. We had to wait just a few minutes before Siggy’s talk started. I understood probably 60-70% of what she said. I understood the gist of all her points, but missed a lot of the details. Still, pretty good I thought. Her speech was on the science of love–how the reaction in the body when one is in love is like the same effect that hard drugs have on your system, and so it sets up a dependence on the feeling of love, and it’s why everyone is looking for the next fix. Very interesting indeed.

After the talk, we met up with Siggy’s boyfriend who unfortunately missed the speech since he didn’t have the help of Pancho’s navigation and instead had been driving in circles for a half hour (the campus of UNAM is really like a maze, and a lot of it looks the same). We all went to the Arollyo for a nice long breakfast. We ate so much. I tried a lot of the things that were offered in the buffet. I had a couple of blue corn sopes, pozole (a delicious soup with the corn that pops when it’s boiled that you also add a bunch of fun stuff to like lettuce, radish, lime and spices, to suit your taste), an assortment of meats in various sauces (all spicy, and I liked most of them. the only one I didn’t actually eat was the dark mole ((mole is a type of sauce, not a small mamal. pronounced “mo-leh”)) because the meat looked suspiciously like a pig’s ear), fresh-squeezed orange juice with some carrot juice, 3 tepid cafe americanos (rather disappointing indeed), and juevos revueltos con jamon y queso (scrambled eggs with ham and cheese) which may have been the best eggs I’ve had since I’ve been in Mexico (aside from the ones we cooked on the plantain leaves). The ham and cheese made it extra yummy.

After we finally finished eating, we all were allowed access to the area where they have the adjoining ring for bull fights which occur every Sunday. It’s a very touristy location, but it is very festive overall, and I had a lot of fun looking around.

After the restaurant, it was already late when we got back to Saskia’s. She ran up and got her school books, and then we all (me Saskia and Chucho) went to Santa Fe and had a coffee. Saskia’s friend showed up and they went to have lunch together. Chucho and I didn’t really have a destination in mind, but we headed back in the direction of my house, and ended up in Polanco.

We parked near a big cathedral and went in to look around. It was an interesting mix of old and modern styles. Definitely very grand.

We walked around Polanco a bit, and eventually decided to get something to eat. We ended up at a place that serves delicious pastas for very reasonable prices. They start at $48 pesos which is less than $5 USD, but it doesn’t taste like $5 pasta. I had the spinach raviolis and they were soooo good. We also got a carafe of the house red wine, which Chucho informed me doesn’t count as alchol because wine is food. Heh. Whatever you have to tell yourself.

But it was nice, and I counseled Chucho on his girl problems. I doubt he took my advice, but that’s probably not the point anyway. I think he just needed a neutral ear to hear his story and offer sympathy.

At one point while we were sitting enjoying our wine, I got a text message from Siggy: “Concierto Joss Stone hoy. Alguien Quiere?” My response, “me, me, me!!” So we some how managed to all meetup (the traffic was the worst that they’d seen in a long time. It took Saskia and Siggy 3 hours to get back from school–usually a 20 minute drive). We went to Salon 21 where the concert was already underway by the time we arrived, but we still got to see Joss Stone perform a bunch of songs. She’s got quite an amazing voice, and a fun stage presence. There was one girl in the crow who had bright red, long, curly hair. I wonder how disappointed she was to see that Joss’s hair had changed and was now dark brown with chunky purple and blue pieces.

After the concert I was pretty tired, and luckily just had to drive Saskia back to her house before I could go home. Unfortunately I still had Chucho with me (he’d left his car at my house), and he still wanted to talk. Not that we didn’t discuss some interesting things, just that I was so tired already. As it was, I didn’t get to sleep until 1:30, and I so my homework stayed unfinished.