Al otro lado

Virtual Moving

2008-03-23T10:01:00.003-06:00

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I really like the features and style of the blogs I see in Wordpress. So, I'm moving Al otro lado to http://deebswriting.wordpress.com/.

Please update you links and whatnot.

See you there,

deeb

Tapalpa

2008-03-22T14:05:00.003-06:00

This past week we skipped town with the rest of Guadalajara and headed out into the countryside. More specifically, we spent most of Semana Santa in Tapalpa, Jalisco. During Semana Santa, most of the big cities in Mexico empty and the beaches are packed with all the people from Guadalajara and Mexico City.

Tapalpa is about an hour and a half from Guadalajara and up into the mountains. Tapalpa is known as a place with really good cheese and very large rocks. There are quite a lot of cabins for rent and most people seem to stay outside the town and in cabins in the pine forests. We stayed at the cabin of my friend’s aunt.

The first day we arrived we unpacked the car and then headed into town. By chance we stopped in front of a house with a sign proclaiming “Productos Lacteos”. We entered off the street into the sitting room of the house. The smell of boiling guavas filled the room, we walked through the sitting room, filled with family photos into a small room with a refrigerator and stove opening onto the courtyard. The room was filled with preserves and rompope, and the guavas boiling on the stove. The owner, Carmelita, came through the courtyard to give us the big sell. She showed us the various kinds of cheese she had – queso fresco, panela, aged panela, aged queso fresco. Carmelita told us that she aged the cheeses for more than a month before they were ready to sell.

We were given taste tests of the cheeses and samples of the different flavors of rompope; we smelled the guavas and opened our wallets. We bought fresh and aged cheeses, two different flavors of rompope and peach preserves. I felt like I was operating with great restraint.

After the shopping spree, we wandered around the center of town and checked out the market and the church. We sampled the local specialties, which included tamales de acelga (or chard tamales) covered in cream and queso fresco. Across the street from the woman selling the tamales, there was a family selling churros. So we had desert, too!

I eyed the pots for boiling beans in the market and bought a new wooden spatula. We bought honey from a man loaded down with honeycomb and surrounded by bees. My friend laughed at the people asking the man if the honey was “all natural”.

We relaxed at the cabin and ate good food and played dominos while keeping warm by the fire. On our last day, we returned and left town loaded town with more cheese.

We also went to visit the big rocks, or Piedrotas, which were impressive to some people, but I was more impressed by Carmelita’s. We took her card which reads:
Productos Lacteos
Quesos, Panelas, Pegostes, Conservas, Rompopes, Ponches y Repostería
Carmelita’s Toscano
Hidalgo no. 248, Tel. 43 200 57, Tapalpa, Jalisco.

Life plans

2008-03-11T21:33:00.001-06:00

I have had quite a few of those “what am I doing with my life” moments since arriving here. Most of them are answered with certainty and a smile; however, the job front seems to get more and more uncertain.

A few weekends ago, Adolfo, a friend and I had a long discussion about this. What my friend called a therapy session with a few bottles of wine. I confessed that I’m a little bit lost.

I originally got into this line of work because I wanted to help create better citizens of the United States; citizens who were worldlier and culturally competent. Young people who would return from their experience and be inspired to continue learning languages, or learn more about migrants, the incarcerated, or poor in their own country and do something to make the situation better.

I knew exactly why I was doing my job.

I am less sure of what I am currently doing.

They had several suggestions but they boiled down to one – they think I should teach. I was always sure I didn’t want to teach. Now I’m less sure of that.

In fact, I’m a lot less sure about most everything related to jobs. One of the things I told my friend was that in the States, I knew what the options were and where. I knew what the paths were to reach the goals I had. Now, I don’t know what all the options are, or where they are, or even how to get to them and I seem to have lost track of my professional goals.

Some people think I should teach, other people mention writing a book. I am viewing both these options with a romanticism that I just don’t think is very realistic.

My current job is ok and I am fine for the moment, but I can’t see my future there and it doesn’t help that everyone has a Plan B in case of getting fired. I feel like I should be getting my Plan B together.

Ok, I give up

2008-03-10T22:22:00.002-06:00

For the last time, I tried once again to win the battle with fake meat. I lost. I have some sort of reaction to fake meat products that leads to terrible stomachaches and intestinal distress. I don’t get it.

I purposely tried the fake meat this time while Adolfo was out of town. Also, because it is hard to just buy one small serving, I knew there was a chance I would need to throw the rest of the package out, and for some reason that was something I didn’t want Adolfo to be around for.

My history with fake meat began in grad school. I was starving and wanted ready to eat food that wasn’t horrible for my health. I was surviving on quesadillas with the occasional bagged spinach leaf or spoonful of refried beans out of a can and frozen vegetarian lasagna. I needed another option.

I thought that a little Boca/Morningstar burger or nugget would provide some much needed variety. And it did. Hours after eating any of these products I would develop horrible stomachaches.

I don’t know why. I have no other food allergies, not even the family food allergy. And, apparently the rest of my family is able to eat fake meat products with abandon. I eat soy products regularly (tofu, soy sauce, the occasional edamame). I don’t generally have a sensitive stomach. I eat chile and drink tequila (both in moderation). I even eat street food and since moving here I’ve had hotdogs off the street, with chile! (Now, that really should have given me a stomachache.)

So for some reason, with all that experience, I decided to give it one more shot. They sell a lot of fake meat products here. I don’t believe they are exceptionally healthy (they seem to have a lot of fat), but I just want another option sometimes. Also, I convinced myself that maybe fake meat is different here. Well, I was wrong.

Pain and suffering ensued. And, I think I’m off the fake meat wagon for good.

What is it that fake meat has that is not found in anything else I’m eating?

Alone

2008-03-09T11:56:00.002-06:00

Adolfo left for Mexico City yesterday and now I’m home alone for the next few days. I’ve been reading about people (in emails and blogs) who are housebound due to the winter storms hitting the Mid-west, and for some reason am feeling a little jealous. So, I think today I’m going to pretend to be housebound. There are a lot of things to do out in the city today, and I don’t feel like doing any of them.

Friends of mine are on movie marathons right now because the International Film Festival is happening right now. Last night I went through the schedule and tried to make a plan. But, honestly, although the movies look really good, I can’t get worked up enough to try to find these movie theaters and get there by myself.

I really don’t even feel like going grocery shopping. And, I know perfectly well where the grocery store is. On second thought, I have to go grocery shopping today; I don’t really think I have a choice about this.

I think part of my resistance to getting out of the house has to do with some anxiety I’m feeling about work right now. Among other things, I have one more week before the spring vacations and there are about a thousand things that need to be accomplished before we shut down.

I am excited about the upcoming vacations. I get a ridiculous amount of vacation time with this job. However, contrary to any other job I’ve had in my life, vacations are non-negotiable and non-movable. And, the entire university closes. You will take vacations when they tell you!

With the structure of our currently employment, I will almost never have the same vacation time as Adolfo. Except on the occasion of Semana Santa, which practically every single Mexican has off. Adolfo has Semana Santa and then goes back to work. I, however, have Semana Santa, Semana Pasqua AND the following Monday. So, I’ll be returning to work for the 1st of April.

But, until the end of the day on Friday, I’m panicked about how much needs to be accomplished before the lights go out.

So, today I think I will try to focus on vacations instead of panicking about work. We are going to stay in a cabin of an aunt of a friend in a little town called Tapalpa. So, I think today I’m going to plan a menu and maybe pick out some books.

Container Garden

2008-03-01T11:10:00.003-06:00

I was able to leave work about a half hour early on Friday and made it to the Nursery before it closed. Finally, I was able to pick up a couple pots and a bougainvillea. I planted one pot with spinach seeds and have another for when my tomato seedling out grows it's 1 c. yogurt container.

Also, this week one of the rosemary cuttings started to perk up and I think it has sprouted some roots. The other cutting still looks really stressed and I'm not sure it's going to make it.

The mint, of course, looks great and is making an attempt to take over the terrace from it's rather small pot. The oregano is struggling along and I'm not sure what to do to make it happy. I've thought about trying to divide it or putting it in a bigger pot, but it just looks really constricted although I think it should have enough space (same sized pot as the mint).

Spring has sprung, here in Guadalajara. The trees are blooming and the people are sneezing.

Teaching culture

2008-02-26T19:51:00.002-06:00

I have a friend who is very interested in cinema and has been lending us various documentaries and other movies to watch. Recently, we were discussing learning about culture and cultural references through movies and this weekend she lent us a Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete movie, to teach me about Mexican culture. We've already had long conversations about Cantinflas.

So, now I'm making a list of movies that I think teach or explain US culture or contain cultural references. I think they need to be from before the 90s, since she's seen a lot of movies since that time, also she's already seen the Muppet Movie, the Wizard of Oz and Breakfast at Tiffany's (which she didn't like).

So here's my short list so far:

To Kill a Mockinbird
The Cradle will Rock
Some Like it Hot
Roman Holiday
Bull Durham
Pretty in Pink or 16 Candles
Blazing Saddles
Say Anything
American Graffiti
Once Upon a Time in the West

What do you think? Any glaring omissions?

I think I am not including the War genre, but I don't much like it - or I could recommend that she watch Apocalypse Now and not tell me about it.

Lunchroom questions

2008-02-24T18:22:00.002-06:00

On Friday, I was heating up my lunch and a co-worker, who I don't know very well, asked me, "So what do people from the US eat?"

I thought, uh oh, I'm not going to give her an answer she will like, and said, "Do you mean, what am I having for lunch?"

She said yes and so I responded, "Well today I'm having Tortilla Soup."

Probably not what people from the US are usually eating. I think she was disappointed that I was eating Mexican food, instead of something more exotic and interesting.

Nopalitos

2008-02-24T18:03:00.003-06:00

Adolfo’s brother passed us his recipe for Nopalitos and I made them for lunch today. I have eaten this recipe before and I liked it quite a bit. However, people are always cautioning about cooking nopales, which are cactus pads from a certain kind of prickly pear cactus, nopalitos are literally “little nopales” – basically they are cut up. The caution is generally because nopales are famous for their babas, or drool. If not properly cooked they ooze a goo similar to that of okra. And, it is not at all appealing when your salad looks like it’s covered in drool.

Last week, when I went to the market, I noticed for the first time that they had nopales. The market, and to a lesser extent the supermarket, is very seasonal. I may not know the particular seasons for some things, but at the market it is stark – either it’s there, it’s not there, or it’s there and looks really bad (which is the case right now with the guavas, they are out of season and look horrible). So the nopales have appeared, and they look good, so it must be nopal season.

In case you are able to get nopales where you are, I translated the recipe below. Remember, it’s a salad, so measurements are difficult to come by and it’s up to your taste.

Nopalitos Salad

Wash the nopales and look them over carefully for needles. Cut into large dice. Add to salted water, which is boiling with a piece of an onion. Boil for 20 minutes. Drain and remove onion pieces.

Mix in a medium sized bowl: finely diced onion, finely diced chile serrano, chopped tomato and cilantro. Add the drained nopalitos and add to your taste: salt, olive oil and vinegar or lime juice. You may also add diced avocado. Finally on top sprinkle queso fresco, or other similar cheese.

You can refrigerate the salad before serving, because it is much better cold.

I would say that refrigeration is not an option, you must at least serve the salad at room temperature, so a quick refrigeration helps you get there faster. Of course, you can add the tomato, cheese and avocado right before serving. I used about 1 ½ - 2 cups of nopales, the onion was red for color and I used probably 2 T., one whole avocado, which I also believe is not optional, and a roma tomato. I also used probably 1 T. of lime juice and I seeded the chile.

It was quite successful and not at all drooly.

Happy Valentine’s Day or The Secret Chinese Menu Strikes Again!

2008-02-14T22:44:00.002-06:00

So, first of all, and since I’m thinking of Louise and she posted about Valentine’s Day in Japan, I’m sort of surprised by the non-issue that is Valentine’s Day here. I work in an office FULL of women and I expected a little bit more of an event. There was no asking about plans for the night, no little candies passed around, nobody appeared to receive flowers. I was at least expecting people to ask me if I was going out to dinner. Nothing.

The streets, however, are a different world altogether. I saw lots and lots of people with balloons. Lots and lots of balloons, in fact, while I regularly pass people selling flowers in the street, I usually don’t see people selling balloons. Many more balloons than flowers. Balloons on sticks, balloons on string, I didn’t get a balloon.

Anyway, we did go out to dinner tonight. We walked over to the neighborhood Chinese restaurant, which is now the second time we’ve been and I’m starting to really like this place. It is still expensive and we can’t go there all the time, but ACTUAL Chinese people eat there.

Unfortunately, the actual Chinese people didn’t arrive until we were paying the bill, so I was not able to point to their table and ask the waiter to bring me whatever they were eating. I was also really missing Louise, I already know that the restaurant is Cantonese, and Louise could tell them to bring us real Chinese food and not goopy/saucy stuff. (Although, we quite liked our goopy/saucy stuff, as it had really good flavor and the vegetables are still crunchy.)

But, after rudely trying to listen in on the conversation behind us – in Cantonese – which was wildly unsuccessful in helping us learn what was on the Secret Chinese menu, we just went ahead and asked the waitress what the folks behind us had just ordered. I was reminded of Calvin Trillin in “The Tummy Trillogy” where he continually complains about his lack of ability to speak Chinese and how it is preventing him from a really good meal.

So, the folks behind us ordered stir-fried baby chard with mushrooms, the first of the season, the waitress explained. Making it that much worse. She did tell us that the next time we come in, ask for her and ask what the kitchen is preparing that is not on the menu. I think, with that, we just might be gaining access to the secret Chinese menu.

And, Merry Christmas to you, too!

2008-02-13T19:17:00.002-06:00

I think some of you thought I was joking when I said you would get your Christmas cards for Groundhog's Day. I've been receiving emails of shock and surprise for the last few weeks and it is really amusing me. This week we received our first Christmas card (thanks Matt, Stephanie & Isaac!) and it is now proudly displayed on our sagging bookshelves.

I think next year I'm just going to go ahead and wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Groundhog's Day!

And, by the way, Randall - You don't need an invitation to come visit us, we will be very happy to see you anytime you like!

We need a new plan

2008-02-06T19:13:00.000-06:00

So, today, February 6th, my mail-in ballot arrived for the primary. Since California voted yesterday with the other Super Tuesday primaries, I did not vote.
Hrmph.

I feel frustrated about this and worried that I won’t get the ballot in November either. I always vote. This is the first time I don’t and, for the first time in my life, it is actually very interesting vote in this primary.

My voter registration for my overseas ballot was mailed right after new years (from California, thanks to Adolfo’s brother). But, somehow I thought I had done something wrong, or I was supposed to not just register as an overseas voter, but also request my ballot. But, apparently they got it and understood that they needed to send me a ballot, slooooowly.

I have heard rumors of ex-pats being able to get their ballots by email or fax, so I’m going to have to look into that method – I think it depends on your voting state.

Question

2008-02-05T21:52:00.000-06:00

How can you tell if a pineapple is ripe? I can't seem to figure it out.

Drive through

2008-02-02T11:26:00.000-06:00

There is an intersection that we pass regularly in our driving around town that takes us from our neighborhood to a major avenue, which traverses the city. At any time of the day or night you can buy things from your car at this intersection. I have noticed that the products tend to change depending on the time of day.

In the mornings and during the daytime, you can get your windshield washed; buy a phone card or a newspaper. I have purchased both newspapers and phone cards here. The windshield washers are a family, I think, and at least two of them are deaf. Also, there is an old woman asking for money is at this intersection during the day. I gave her a couple oranges once and she asked me where I was going, I told her I was going to the center of town and she told me she would bless the roads I would take. One time, I was asked if I wanted to buy a puppy. They were very small. I declined.

In the evening you can buy roses and calla lilies, or perhaps a bouquet. But, you can’t get your windshield washed and there are no more newspapers.

Very late in the night or early morning, depending on when you are coming home, the transvestite prostitutes come out. No more roses for sale.

Experiments

2008-01-31T21:10:00.000-06:00

This is what Adolfo calls it when I try out new foods on him. I have a four day weekend and am considering my options. One of the options in sushi. I haven't made sushi at home before and think now would be a good time. There is a Japanese grocery store here and I think they sell all the things I will need for homemade sushi. We'll see how it goes.

I'm also considering several bread recipes and will need to make more cookies.

I made Chocolate Crackles last weekend for the first time in a very, very long time, and they are all gone now. Granted, Adolfo has been having meetings in the house with two friends, so it's not that we wolfed down the whole batch. I may just make these cookies again.

I think we just cleaned out the last of the spaghetti sauce from the freezer, so I will need to make more soon.

Tomorrow, I am planning to go with a friend to find a grocery store that sells all imported items and is the only place I know that sells REAL maple syrup. Since the only maple syrup we have was a gift from a coworker (who bought it at the store we are going to tomorrow), I've never been there. We'll see what fun things we find.

I also want to go out to eat with some friends at a pizza place that we hear is owned by actual Italians, and see about 3 movies, and finally find the elusive pupusa restaurant we've been talking about for months.

There is a lot to accomplish.

Super

2008-01-27T17:29:00.000-06:00

I’m in a struggle with my local Gigante Supermarket. I want them to actually stock the things that I buy regularly. I’m not asking them to order things that they don’t usually stock (like tofu). I’m asking them to keep bread and milk on the shelves.

Granted, they have bread and milk, but I’m not buying Pan Bimbo and Lala milk. I want them to keep the only acceptable sandwich bread (it crumbles when you bite it) and the reduced fat organic milk on the shelves. Obviously people are buying these items, as they frequently run out.

So now, I’m participating in a battle of wills. Every time I go to the supermarket I ask for the manager who makes the orders and I ask her to, once again, order these items. She responds that on Monday (I’m there on the weekends) she will call the distributor. And, I respond by asking her to double the order of milk. The milk comes in a Tetra Pak box and is shelf stable. So, there is no risk of her order spoiling, and in fact she would sell more. She responds that she will call the distributor on Monday, and informs me that they are under new management. (There is no promise of doubling the order.)

Sadly, this is the only supermarket where I have seen this kind of organic milk. The other kind comes in a super fancy, costly plastic bottle and is significantly more expensive.

These are not the only things that come and go at the super. I was, for a time, able to get good Dijon mustard, but, not anymore. I didn’t complain to the manager about this, as I would rather put my efforts toward focusing her on the milk.

I made bread this weekend in order to survive the bread shortage. At least I can make bread.

Much better

2008-01-26T08:30:00.000-06:00

I'm practically completely recovered. I now have a "little cough" instead of what was earlier this week "is that part of my lungs?" We went to Adolfo's family doctor on Tuesday morning, in order to make sure I wasn't developing bronchitis - and I am not. He asked me many of the same questions and some questions I was not expecting - "Do people smoke in your office?" (The answer, thankfully, is no.) He also did not ask some questions, like if I had an allergy. Interesting.

All in all a very good experience, we were the first people to have an appointment at 9am and met the doctor in front of the building. We walked in and sat down with him and talked for about 30 minutes, no secretary, no forms, no waiting in the little room with nothing to read. He recommended 3 kinds of pills (not antibiotics) and we went to the pharmacy and bought them (no prescription). The pills are GREAT! My cough slowed down considerably and the next day I went back to work.

sick

2008-01-18T11:40:00.000-06:00

I've missed two days of work this week. I'm now to the point where if I just don't move, I won't cough. hmm... at some point I'm going to have to get up off the sofa.

I tend to get really annoyed when I'm sick, especially if I'm just sick enough that I can't concentrate on a book. So here I am, annoyed and looking at all the projects that I'm not working on and the new books I have that I'm not reading.

I did get the King Arthur Flour catalog yesterday from my mother and it appeared to be at the right reading and comprehension level for me. So I went window shopping through the catalog for a while and kept myself entertained.

Being sick in another country/culture is also an interesting event. Much of the unsolicited advice is similar to unsolicited advice I would get in the States - put on a sweater, where is your scarf?, drink more tea, "Mija put socks!" But I think that last one is just specific to me.

However, there are two things that I notice here. One is an extra-sensitivity to "cold air". Especially, that you should not breath it. How, you ask, should you breath if the air is in fact chilly? You should wear a surgical mask.

I'm not sure how the surgical mask heats up the air, or prevents the cold air from getting into your lungs. It's a mystery to me, but the people here swear by it.

The other difference I notice has to do with medicines. Unlike in the states, where it is extra difficult and expensive to get medicine, here is is extra easy and not anywhere near as expensive. And, since you can walk into a pharmacy and ask for many kinds of drugs, people tend to have a little bit of information about what these drugs do (more so that what I found to be true in the States).

So when you get sick, people will begin rattling off the names of all kinds of drugs that you should take. I have no idea what they are or what they are for and I know the people recommending them to me are neither physicians nor pharmacists. But, they are well meaning, none the less.

So, what's a sick person to do? Well, I let Adolfo be the filter on the drug list. The one time I was very sick (with a cold), he (and his mother) did the research (called all the aunts) and decided what I needed. I took whatever it was, and started to feel much better. But that's just my experience.

And, I'm not wearing the surgical mask no matter how cold the air is.

Ideas

2008-01-13T14:50:00.001-06:00

Someone needs to write a Roadfood for Mexico. Where are Jane & Michael Stern when you need them? I’m sure these little pueblos we passed on the road have a little diner-like restaurant with somebody’s grandmother cooking a fantastic pozole. But, how am I supposed to know?

Timeline

2008-01-13T14:49:00.001-06:00

I have now spent more time living in Mexico than in Ecuador. And, not surprisingly, things are going much better here than the one semester spent in Quito. Also, the stakes are higher this time and I’m a different person than I was 10 years ago.

100 pesos

2008-01-12T17:03:00.000-06:00

The last weekend before work began again (January 5th & 6th), Adolfo and his sister and I spent a weekend in Morelia. Morelia is in the state of Michoacan and is about 3 hours southeast of Guadalajara. It is a nice little colonial city and we walked around for hours checking out the interesting houses, the aqueduct, the cathedral, etc. (Adolfo already updated the photos.)

We had received some information about places to eat, and the best of them was the Inmaculada. First of all, the name is great. Who wouldn’t want to eat in the immaculate restaurant? However, as you might expect is more related to religion than the cleanliness of the place. The restaurant is located in the basement of a church.

The first thing we did was change 100 pesos (approximately $10 US dollars) into laminated chips of different denominations in order to pay for the food in the different stalls. The guy who took our money assured us that we could come back and change our leftover chips back into pesos. Also, we thought that we would start small and then go back and change more pesos if we liked.

Then we hatched a plan: Adolfo headed off to get some corundas (a local kind of tamale), his sister spotted the pozole, I got a combination of two enchiladas covered in potatoes and carrots, one fried potato taco and one fried meat taco and I got two drinks for us to share. Everything was fantastic, but we only spent about 40 pesos!

So, then we had a new agenda – we were going to try to spend all the money!

We spotted the stand for sopes and we sent Adolfo to get us sopes to share. We had 2 sopes each and were still left with a lot of change.

Then we had to take a break and recover for a moment. La Inmaculada was packed with large families and everyone looked local. We had ventured away from the central plaza and a significant amount of tourists, and now we were eating in a local hotspot, which was obviously being maintained and supported by the local lower-middle class population. None of us are really sure of how the economics of the place function. We don't know if the people working at the stalls are the church members, how much of a cut the church gets, or why they were playing Frank Sinatra music! (Oh, I guess the last bit doesn't have to do with economics. Still, we were puzzled.)

While taking the break Adolfo spotted some quesadillas made with fresh tortillas and went to check them out. Meanwhile, I spotted a woman patting out blue corn tortillas! It was a very exciting find. I decided I could eat one blue corn quesadilla. And, Adolfo’s sister took the last of the chips and bought some buñuelos for desert.

We were able to spend all the money, but we couldn’t manage to finish the buñuelos.

It was a very good thing that we were a 45-minute walk from the center, and our hotel. We definitely needed it.

Escrabble

2008-01-04T16:50:00.001-06:00

Due to family (house) scrabble rules, I beat Adolfo's family at scrabble, in Spanish.

Also, I spelled "laterales" using a "la" already in existence and spent all 7 of my letters!

Still here

2008-01-04T16:36:00.000-06:00

Nothing like a few visitors to make the blogging fall to the background. But, the photography is still happening and you can see some of the Christmas cooking for yourself.

Adolfo's brother when back home a few days ago, but his sister is here for another week. We are trying to convince them both to move back as soon as possible.

Part of the convincing has taken the form of food: sopes, enchiladas, posole, quesadillas, cocteles de camarones, tacos, tortas de pavo, chilequiles, sopa de tortilla, tortas ahogadas and dogos (near relatives of the Sonoran dogs).

I don't know about them, but I'm convinced.

Also, we have tried several coffee shops and the local (German?) microbrewery. It's called Der Krug Brauhaus and there's sauerkraut on the menu. Although, we just stuck to the beer and home fries, next time I think we'll sample the menu.

Tonight, for dinner I'm going to try out Rick Bayless's recipe for Pescado a la Veracruzana using fish fillets.

Yesterday

2007-12-24T12:11:00.000-06:00

Adolfo’s brother arrived the other day and today we are cooking the turkey.

Yesterday, we had breakfast in the center of town at a restaurant that we had previously only seen in Mexico City. It’s called Los Bisquits Bisquits Obregon and it’s the only place I know in Guadalajara where you can get Café con Leche like they make in the southeast part of the country (like Veracruz). Café con Leche is more than just coffee with milk, a small amount of coffee concentrate (like a room temperature double-strength espresso) is poured into a tall glass. Then the waiter or waitress pours steaming hot milk from about two feet above the glass in a thin stream so that the milk froths in the glass. It’s delicious.

After breakfast, we decided to walk around the center a little and we stopped in the cathedral, which was packed. Unbeknownst to me, the cardinal was giving mass and everyone in town showed up. There were lots of seminarians in the back of the cathedral in their fancy white smocks and black dresses (I’m sure these articles of clothing have specific names). Once again, I felt like some of my more catholic relatives need to come visit me and fill me in on the details.

We spent about 5 minutes in mass looking at the backs of the heads of about half the population of Guadalajara and then snuck back outside. I never did see the cardinal.

We wandered into the Governor’s Palace to take a look at Hidalgo. And then over to the Regional Museum and checked out some pottery, buggies and a photo exhibit of Bolivian miners (not exactly regional, but interesting nonetheless).

After our little post-breakfast wander, we drove over to Vallarta Avenue and walked on the Vía Recreativa. The avenue is closed to cars on Sunday mornings and the bikes, skaters, and pedestrians take over. Then we sat at an outdoor café overlooking the avenue and had a beer. It was very nice.

In the evening we went out to La Morenita for posole, tostadas de panela, a torta ahogada and some enchiladas. Very tasty.

Today we are staying home, for the most part, and making turkey all day. I’m going out to see if we can find a scrabble game to entertain us.

On the upswing

2007-12-21T21:32:00.001-06:00

So, in the last two days I wrote and sent about 25 Christmas cards, made 3 kinds of cookies and Calabacitas (from Diana Kennedy), fish curry and some spaghetti sauce to freeze. I'm ready to lay down with a good book now.

That time of year again...

2007-12-20T17:23:00.000-06:00

Ack, it’s time for the Christmas panic!

Today is my first day off from work and wow; it has been a rough couple of weeks. Last week, I was working 12-hour days almost every day and I was not in the office, which means that this week I had horrible email backlog. Combined with the craziness that was the last two days when many people in the office (including me) thought we were going to lose our jobs. Not because of my boss, but because of an edict issued from the Rector. All became right with the world about 5pm yesterday when my boss came back from battle (at the Rectoria) and told us that no one was getting fired.

So, needless to say, I haven’t written any Christmas cards, many people sent me very nice birthday wishes and I did not respond, and Adolfo has been asking if I forgot about him. Basically, I just fell out of communication with the world. (By the way, I will respond to your emails and thank you for the birthday wishes!)

Adolfo finished his semester teaching and has a few projects in his other job, but all the jobs were winding down for him during the last two weeks. Which was great, because he was able to do all the things at home that needed to be done, like the grocery shopping and mailing a box to my family, feeding me dinner when I returned home zombie-like.

There is no Christmas tree, there are no cookies and you’ll be getting your Christmas card for Groundhog Day.

(Let the vacations begin?!?!)

Bus Update

2007-12-04T20:24:00.000-06:00

So the bus excitement has kind of tapered down. A few things have contributed to this, not the least of which is that getting to work is becoming more routine. I changed where I get on the bus and now I'm only using one bus line, instead of trying to get on 3 different lines which wouldn't stop.

The original bus stop was good because three different bus lines would pass that could conceivably get me to work. The bad thing about this bus stop was that it was immediately after a huge intersection/shopping mall any many times, during rush hour the buses were so full that 4 or 5 would pass me before one would stop. And, sometimes I would be at the bus stop for half an hour before I could get on a bus. So that needed to end - stinking bus not stopping was cutting into my sleep!

Anyway, now I'm getting the bus before the big intersection/mall and the one bus line that passes, almost always stops. (I think in two weeks maybe one or two buses didn't stop.)

Because I'm only taking one bus line to work, this has cut down the variety of bus drivers, and I'm now seeing the same guys day after day.

The ride home still has a bit of diversity to it. I have recently been very interested in the bus decoration which includes the fuzzy steering wheel covers on other items. So far, I have never seen a fuzzy steering wheel cover on an actual steering wheel. One example would be, fuzzy steering wheel covers around a gold covered Jesus on the crucifix. I think it has the same effect as if the driver put a fake fur stole around Jesus's neck. That bus driver is on my regular 'to work' rotation.

The most interesting decoration lately, I only saw once. Fuzzy steering wheel covers around kleenex boxes mounted on the ceiling! (Disco fever? Anyone?) I smiled all the way home.

FIL recap

2007-12-02T22:41:00.000-06:00

The FIL is over and I am listening to the last concert, Acterciopelados, live, on the University’s radio station. We decided that it was too much on a Sunday night, even though it's free, and the place sounds like it is jam-packed.

I think we did just about everything we wanted to do during the last week. We bought books for ourselves and others, we saw most of a concert, we listened to concerts in our house (they are all broadcast live), we listed to talks by authors and architects, we walked the isles until our feet couldn’t take it anymore.

Adolfo posted our photos, so you can see the madness. Here are some of the things I noticed:

We encountered many friends and coworkers at the FIL, which makes me feel like we are meeting the right people.

You can SMOKE in the expo hall! The first person we noticed smoking was a security guard.

The general admission for the FIL is $20 pesos (discounts for teachers, students, and seniors). That’s a price that many people can afford once and some of us can afford it several times. It allows families to come to check out the books. I thought it was very generous and allowed a wide variety and large number of people to come to the FIL.

The FIL is run by the University of Guadalajara and many of the people working in the expo hall looked like students. They were obviously not assigning people to security guard duty based on physical appearance (seeing these teeny little girls with shirts that said “security” across the back made me pause more than once). Which then made me think – really, what kind of security do bookworms need?

I found a book in English by a woman we saw speak 2 weeks ago, Raquel Tibol. I’m very excited, because I came home from the speech and looked to see if she had anything published in English and found very little.

Adolfo found good architecture books (of course) and had to make difficult decisions about which to buy (the agony lasted for days!). He did buy one in particular, which he showed me before buying. I said, “Who’s that guy?” And, in response, he turned the book over. The guy was posing next to his model of the St. Louis Arch! Whoops! How embarrassing.

There was an excellent stand for CDs (Pentagrama) and I bought one Blues and one Zydeco CD and Adolfo got a CD of very old Son. I think they are all pretty good.

There is an architecture part of the FIL called the Arpafil. We saw one of Adolfo’s coworkers give a very interesting talk on sustainability.

We caught the announcement of the winners of the architectural competition for the FIL and one of Adolfo’s friends won first place.

We saw part of a speech by Elena Poniatowska. But, the best lecture we saw was by Tariq Ali.

Tariq Ali

2007-12-02T22:39:00.000-06:00

I had heard Tariq Ali on Democracy Now! but I have not read his books. He was excellent. I think it is very easy to criticize the US government and the war in Iraq, but to come to Mexico and criticize Carlos Fuentes at a book fair and then suggest that President Calderon and his wife should read Don Quixote, that takes something more than guts. And, to do that eloquently and smartly takes a lot of skill (and smarts). He discussed world literature and engagement. Authors and readers need to be engaged in their world and understand the context of what they are reading. He criticized Fuentes for not being engaged, particularly in the fact that he wrote the introduction for a biography of one of the billionaire media tycoons of South America. Who, of course, would be more interested in fewer voices in the media, instead of diversity of journalists and opinions. Ali actually praised Mario Vargas Llosa who switched from being a left-leaning Latin American author, to a right-leaning Latin American author. But, Vargas Llosa was open about this and maintained an engagement with his world and defended his position. Fair enough.

The guy who introduced him mentioned that he went to Bolivia to find Che. While he was with Che he was captured by the Bolivians. When he ended up in jail as a suspected insurgent, he learned some Spanish.

And, at the end of the talk, one of the audience members (who was obviously either a huge fan, or a friend) asked him to talk about John Lennon and Mick Jagger. So, then he told a couple stories about being asked by John to listen to Imagine before it was recorded. And, about being the inspiration for the Rolling Stone’s song “Street-fighting Man.”

After the talk finished, I went up to him and told him I heard him speak on Democracy Now! and really appreciated his talk. Then Adolfo and I raced off to buy a few of his books (in Spanish). Adolfo wanted to see if we could get them signed, so we went back to the lecture hall, he was still there and we got our books signed.

What a great lecture!

Shopping, shopping, shopping

2007-11-29T19:16:00.000-06:00

For some reason, I’m in a shopping mood right now. I think I can place the blame for this irrational behavior in several places – so that you know that it is totally not my fault.

First, FIL – book shopping heaven – has made me realize that I really do need more books. Thanks FIL!

Second, Louise – my “friend” sent me an Internet coupon for the Ann Taylor store, which she is well aware is my mortal weakness. This is combined with the fact that I really (no really) don’t have enough office clothes. I have enough weekend clothes, but I’m sorely lacking in the office-ware department. I REALLY covet the clothes on the Ann Taylor web site – and I know they fit me. Evil Louise!

And third, we desperately need a sofa before the Christmas visitors arrive. We just have to have one. There is only so much sitting around the kitchen table you can do before you want to stretch out on the sofa and relax. When we have someone over to stay, the futon (our stand-in sofa) becomes the guest bed. And, yes, we actually drag it into another room for this occasion. (We though it rude to make Adolfo’s mother sleep in the living room and have the sun blazing in on her at 7:30am. The guest room has curtains.) For Christmas, we are hosting Adolfo’s brother and sister, so we need more places to sit.

Also, I’d like a new refrigerator, but I think that one is far in the future. I’d be happy to window-shop some new refrigerators.

So that’s it for now, the FIL hasn’t ended yet, my pants don’t fit and I have no place to sit.

It’s really not my fault I’m going to be broke soon!

FIL!

2007-11-23T18:19:00.000-06:00

The FIL begins tomorrow. The FIL is the Ferria Internacional de Libros, that’s right, it’s the International Book Fair! Woo!

I am told that it is the largest book fair in the Americas and some say it is second only to the book fair in Frankfurt, Germany. Em may need to comment on this as she is the only person I know who has been to the book fair in Frankfurt.

I’m hoping to spend all my Christmas money before it even arrives. (ok, maybe I can restrain myself a little.) Adolfo’s mother arrived last night and tomorrow the plan is: all book fair, all the time.

I have the newspaper insert and soon I will get my official FIL schedule and will need to sit down and make a plan. There will be lectures and concerts and expositions and movies and lots and lots of books.

Each year there is a regional special emphasis, which is called the “Invited Country” or region. This year’s invited country is Colombia. So, there will be lots of Colombian writers giving lectures and books about Colombia or by Colombians. Also, there will be concerts by Colombian bands (oh, like, Aterciopelados), Colombian food, etc.

That’s not to mention all the other non-Colombian events and presentations. Elena Poniatowska is going to present her new book called “Amanecer en el Zócalo” about the 50 days of strikes in Mexico City after the last election.

Adolfo says that in the past, they would walk up and down the expo hall full of books for days on end. Which sounds just about perfect to me. It lasts a week, so if you don’t see me around, you know where I am.

"Real"

2007-11-18T13:34:00.000-06:00

Holy mackerel, I found REAL butter at the market yesterday.

Those of you who are not in my family may be wondering, just what is "real" butter and how is it differentiated from "not real" butter. Well, the opposite of "real" is not "not real" but "store", as in, "store" milk. You know, milk that comes from the store. "Real" butter doesn't come from the store.

And, yes, I did buy this butter at a market place, but I would never have found it in the Gigante supermarket.

I went to the market for veggies and cheese. The cheese lady happens to sell other somewhat random household items along with the cheese, so I picked up a bar of soap and a can of tuna along with my kilo of cheese and 18 eggs in a plastic bag.

I asked her if she had any butter and she asked me what kind I wanted. I wasn't sure what that meant, so I tried to get clarification.

She said, in a little box or a ball?

HUH?

So then one of her daughters brought out this plastic bag containing a BALL of butter. I said, "Where did this come from?"

And the father said, "We make it at home."

I asked where the milk came from, and he named a little pueblo somewhere that I didn't recognize. (That's a good sign. What do I know about the pueblos around Jalisco? Practically nothing.)

So, of course I bought it and danced around the house with it while Adolfo looked on, very confused and concerned for my mental health.

I've been losing weight lately, so this should put an abrupt halt to the weight loss as I've been considering all day the number of things that I could eat with butter.

It tastes like "real".

Work Related

2007-11-14T19:43:00.000-06:00

This one is for Amanda because I finally decided to write about something that happens at work.

There are many things that are different from my jobs in the same field in the states and there are also many differences, as you would suspect. However, in the last couple weeks, one of the differences has caught me off guard and made me think about how human relations are difference between countries like the US (Canada, UK, etc.) and countries like Mexico (Spain, France, other Latin American countries, etc.).

A couple weeks ago, my students started kissing me.

You see, all girls kiss other girls they know or meet, on the cheek (once, lean left). Girls also kiss other boys they know or meet, on the cheek. Boys do not kiss other boys, but may give a very masculine one or two-pat hug if they know each other well.

So being a girl, and getting to know some of my students better than others, some of them have started to kiss me.

For some reason, it is shocking to me, and while I rarely get faked out in social settings, I have misread some of the students leaning in for the kiss.

I was ready for the handshake; I had handshake-relationships with students in the states. But, under no circumstances did the handshake lead to a kiss on the cheek.

On one hand, it’s very nice and I know that they feel they know me better, now that I have been working with them for a month or so. On the other hand, I can’t seem to mentally prepare and I just keep feeling awkward, then I hesitate and they think I don’t want to kiss them, and then they hesitate once I recover and it just ends up being weird.

Also, they are the youngest people I am kissing these days. Everyone else (our friends) are long out of school and are much more confident people.

The students seem young and insecure, except for one, who is very exuberant and practically grabs me by the shoulders and kisses me. SHE is also more mature than some of my other students (her parents don’t live in Guadalajara and she lives alone, she has a very different style of dress, she is doing different types of studies), she has a LOT of confidence.

I like that my students are feeling more close to me, I just have to prepare myself for the lean.

Mandarin Juice

2007-11-13T21:21:00.000-06:00

I need a juicer, and fast.

Our concierge brought up a plastic grocery bag full of mandarins this evening after I got home from work. He had a bag for every apartment (there are 4 of us) and I’m quite sure he kept a large amount for himself and his family. We saw him cutting fruit from the tree this weekend, which is enormous and weighed down with ripe mandarins.

I have a hand juicer, the kind I use to squeeze a lime or two, but squeezing 10 pounds of mandarins is going to take me a while. I delayed dinner tonight by squeezing two glasses of juice. Mmmm…. Fresh squeezed juice.

2007-11-08T21:58:00.000-06:00

My Grandma B died last night. I'm feeling kind of far from my family, but Adolfo has been a great help. When I called home tonight, they said they were eating Chinese take-out food, and I was feeling rather nostalgic and homesick and just plain sad.

So, after talking to the family and talking to Adolfo for a little bit, we decided to go try the Chinese restaurant down the road. Grandma B liked Chinese food and I thought a little won ton soup would make me feel better.

And, surprisingly,it did. Grandma must have been smiling down on us, because, although we were prepared to be disappointed, the food was really good. And, I'm feeling much better and less homesick.

Movie popcorn

2007-11-07T22:37:00.000-06:00

One of the differences that I’ve encountered with food here in Guadalajara involves going to the movies. This past Sunday, we went to the University of Guadalajara’s movie theater, which like any good university movie theater shows odd foreign flicks and random documentaries. It’s great!

We went to see a documentary about a fantastic piano player (Martha Argerich). Unfortunately, we didn’t know that we were seeing a double feature and the second movie was so bad that we walked out in the middle. Neither of us had ever left a movie in the middle, but this one was awful and ruining our good movie vibes from the documentary.

When we go to the movies here, we always get snacks. We never got snacks in the states. The snacks in the states are gigantic, costly and don’t taste very good, in our opinion. However, the movie snacks here are really good. (We have only been to 2 movie theaters here and both are independent. If we went to the Cineopolis, we might have a different experience, I don’t know.)

Adolfo gets the peanuts, which come salted and with some dried chile de árbol in the mix. Somewhat dangerous after the lights go down, as you cannot just grab a handful and toss them in your mouth for fear of biting into a fearsome chile.

I go for the popcorn. The popcorn is made without salt and when you get your small sized bag of popcorn (one size only and it’s just enough for me) you move down to the condiments. On your popcorn you can put lime juice, hot sauce and salt! I’ve dabbled in the lime juice and salt or hot sauce and salt, but never all three. It is just about the best pop corn you could want, no fake butter, no extra-super salty and just the right amount. Oh, and it only costs 10 pesos (1 dollar).

Snacks and a good movie, what more could you want.

Virtual Altar

2007-11-02T16:59:00.000-06:00

Day of the Dead is celebrated today, and from the newspaper I bought this morning it appears to be celebrated through the weekend.

I think we are supposed to go to the cemeteries and picnic with our relatives. But, neither Adolfo nor I have any relatives in the local cemeteries. I also don’t have the family photos necessary to build a proper altar, so I decided I would describe my altar here.

If you haven’t seen a Mexican Day of the Dead Altar before, they are very interesting family art projects.

Generally speaking altars are made up of the following items:
Photos of dearly departed friends and family members,
Marigold flowers (also called cempasúchil or, if you’re not practiced up on your Nahuatl, Flor de Muerto)
Candles,
Sugar skulls (sold at every local grocery store, if you go to a market and there is someone with some icing, they will write a name of your choosing across the forehead of the skull, if you like),
Pan de Muertos (bread of the dead),
And then you personalize the altar with things that your friends and relatives liked. You should also consider preparing the food that the dead enjoyed so that they will be more likely to come back and visit with you.

Some altars are more religious and others less so, depending on the family and the relatives, of course.

So, in my altar, there would be pictures of my Grandpa B and a couple golf balls and a hamburger, a picture of my Uncle Tom and a carved wooden duck and perhaps a firecracker (set next to the candles, would provide an appropriate amount of danger for Uncle Tom), a picture of Aunt Helen and Perry and some of that awful candy corn and cherry cordials.

Then you gather with your family and tell stories about the friends and family past and eat Pan de Muertos. In a way, it reminds me of Thanksgiving. I believe there are some public events tomorrow around town, we’ll see if we make it to any of them.

Dis-orientation

2007-10-29T19:42:00.000-06:00

Fall weather arrived last week, as did Daylight Savings Time. I’m completely disoriented. It doesn’t help that I’ve been having a hard time since we got here with my Buenos días, Buenos tardes and Buenos noches.

Adolfo says that I was sleeping in Spanish class the day they taught us how to use the previous three greetings. I maintain that I was taught that you could say “Buenos días” to someone at any time of the day. That is not the case here in Mexico.

Buenos días is strictly a morning greeting, not so much “Good day” as “Good morning.” Buenos tardes is implemented just after the clock passes noon and sometime around dusk, you can begin greeting people with Buenos noches. This is another struggle in my head. It is difficult to walk up to someone and say “Good night!” It just seems more like a closing rather than an opening line.

Then, last week the weather changed dramatically. One day, warm and sunny, over night windstorm, next day blustery, windy Fall day. I think the temperature dropped 30 degrees. Fall weather here is very different from Fall weather in most of the US. Neither the houses, nor the offices, have heating or air conditioning. So the temperature outside is nearly the temperature inside. We’ve broken out the sweaters.

Then we “Fell back.” Changing the hour back is usually good for people and it gives everyone and hour of more sleep. I woke up this morning in a funk. Disoriented and cold. Monday, hrmph.

The embodiment of a stereotype

2007-10-28T17:56:00.000-06:00

The party was a great success and lots of very good people came to our house. For the occasion, Adolfo hung the art on the walls and we bought wine and martini glasses. I made Calico Crumb Cake. Now it actually looks like we live here.

I also learned about a new stereotype – Gringas are known for their excellent baked goods.

I had no idea.

I do like to make cookies and I’ve made a few Calico Crumb Cakes since we arrived. I’m also constantly making the Protein Bars (Granola Bars). And, I am happy to share with whomever is passing through. I think the reaction I have been getting is hilarious; our friends went NUTS about the cake. I sent home two of them with a plate of cake each after watching them hovering over the cake pan and telling me that I should really consider selling cake as a business, between mouthfuls. (I didn’t tell them that Calico Crumb Cake is really the only cake I consider myself any good at making.)

Another friend confessed that when I send a little bag of the Choc-oat-chip cookies home with her husband, she told her children that these were the kind of cookie that they didn’t like. And, she didn’t give them any! Apparently, her children are still at the age that they believe their parents when they say, “you won’t like it.”

We also began working out a plan for Thanksgiving. I had actually not thought about Thanksgiving at all, but our friend from France asked me what plans I had and he said he wanted to have Thanksgiving and we could do it at his apartment. Yea for the French! Now, the trick is – how do we find a turkey for sale when it is not Christmastime?

disjointed

2007-10-24T20:22:00.000-05:00

I'm feeling a little bit far from home right now. I'm also feeling like throwing a party on Saturday.

Perhaps, additionally, I'm feeling a little bit confused.

The dangers of Mexican food

2007-10-18T20:51:00.000-05:00

Every day on my way to work I walk past an elementary school. Since I'm walking by at 8:15am, class has already started and everyone is inside. However, lurking just outside the gates of the school lies - The Tamale Man.

By the time I get to him, the Tamale Man is almost out of tamales and is doing some drive by business, but is mostly chatting with the guards in front of the school. He is very friendly.

What am I supposed to do? I pass him every day and can buy a tamale for breakfast or two for lunch and it will cost me 7 or 14 pesos (yep, thats a filling lunch for less than $2 USD) (in Spanish it's actually one tamal and two tamales)

He has red (meaty), green (meaty and a little bit spicy), queso con rajas (cheese and strips of poblano peppers) and a really scary looking strawberry flavored tamale (they are BRIGHT PINK).

I've only tried the red and green so far and they are really tasty.

I can't eat tamales for breakfast and lunch every day, no matter how much yoga I say I will do. What a conundrum.

Weekend re-cap

2007-10-14T20:29:00.000-05:00

There were many new food experiences this weekend. There were also non-food experiences, but the food-related experiences are always more interesting to me.

Saturday morning, Adolfo and a friend/co-worker and I went to the Abastos market. Abastos means supplies, and it is where the granola supplies are found. My dictionary defines Abastos as “basic provisions…. especially food-stuffs,” that seems appropriate. I wrote about this market before, when we had first arrived.

I am still unable to drive around the Abastos by myself, and my friend and I managed to coerce Adolfo into coming with us (she is very pregnant, so she had a good excuse for needing another set of hands). She knew of several excellent finds including some specific veggie stands that she liked and a creamery, which sold me a gallon of yoghurt and some really good queso cotija. We bought squash blossoms and eyed the cuitlacoche, but didn’t get any. (check the photos) We finished up by going to the Mamá Gallina (mother hen) for the granola supplies and FINALLY the powdered turmeric.

I was very interested in buying some pumpkin seeds, but they were all out. So, I will have to wait to try a recipe for Mole Verde. I also wanted to put some pumpkin seeds in the granola and the protein bars. Oh, well.

After the shopping we needed a big breakfast, so we invited our friend over and made eggs with chorizo, refried beans, queso cotija, and tortillas, coffee and juice. Mmmmm….. My favorite kind of breakfast. (This morning I had yoghurt and fruit salad, Adolfo had cereal and fruit salad.)

After breakfast, our friend left and we headed out of town to Chapala. Chapala is a weekend get-away for many tapatillos, but also has a thriving retired US and Canadian citizen population. The town is on a lake of the same name. Lake Chapala is the largest freshwater lake in Mexico.

A friend’s parents have a house there and we were invited to his sister’s going away party (it seems that everyone is leaving for Spain these days). There were various appetizers, but the main food was brought out in two large tamale steamers. They contained tacos al vapor (steamed tacos), but Adolfo told me that in Guadalajara these are also called tacos sudados (sweaty tacos!). The tacos are made up ahead of time and stacked in the steamer. Then they are steamed so everyone can have tacos which are all hot at the same time. And, you just pick up your taco and put a little salsa on top and away you go.

It was a good party and I tried a couple new tequilas and one that was really nice called 7 Leguas (leagues). The bottle has a picture of a horse on the front and I cannot figure out what the Leguas have to do with a horse. I’m going to look for it in the store and see if it’s in my price range.

We finished off the night (pretty early) by going down to the waterfront and getting an ice cream. Chapala is, for some reason, known for its ice creams. I was advised to go with the Guayaba and I was very excited about trying some guava ice cream, but when we arrived at the ice cream stand, they were sold out of guava. So, I had to go with my second choice – Elote. Sweet corn ice cream is just about the closest thing to having real, farm corn. I’m not sure I can properly explain it, but I think it has to do with how starchy, uninteresting other corn tastes and how sugary-sweet farm corn tastes – just like this ice cream. I was pretty impressed.

Today, I made the Calico Crumb Cake. I’m pretty sure I’ve found where 350˚ F is on my oven. The cake turned out just fine and I’m going to send some to DF with Adolfo when he leaves on Wednesday. I think our friend there will appreciate it. When we visited him in April, he hardly had anything in his refrigerator.

The News

2007-10-12T12:52:00.000-05:00

I'm in the same boat with Karen about the news. I try to read the NY Times and BBC online as much as I can (during the week it seems to be more like a quick skim of the headlines) and we buy El Publico every Friday because it contains a supplement magazine called El Ocio, which is kind of like Time Out and lets you know what's happening in the city that week.

Sadly, I find that I’m not yet really able to understand the political section of the newspaper here and I usually can understand almost all of the celebrity gossip section. So, I’ve been keeping up with the latest Britney Spears scandals as a way of improving my Spanish comprehension for only 7 pesos a week and the knowledge that I’m poisoning my brain with this useless information.

But, in the last couple weeks, the big news in town has been the unholy traffic mess that the city has planned and implemented on the major road about 4 blocks from my house. Not construction so much as trying to create an “expressway” on the weekends by turning all the lights green for most of the day in front of a major shopping mall. Hmm…

No one can enter or leave the mall parking in a safe or legal manor, and the pedestrians (like me) who want to cross the street to get to the mall – well basically tough luck. The options are walk an additional 2-3 city blocks in either direction to get to a pedestrian overpass or the one functioning crosswalk (while passing about 3 formerly functional crosswalks). Or, what many people do instead, cross halfway into the four-lane road and wait at the yellow middle line for the other side of the traffic to clear and then cross the other half of the road (very dangerous).

If you look at the headlines for today (October 12th) you will notice that there is a big procession taking place. Today is the saint day of the Virgin of Zapopan and she’s being moved from the Cathedral in Guadalajara to the Basilica of Zapopan, and all the followers go with her on the road.

(I’m off work today for the Founding Day of the U, so three day weekend for me!)

Holy bread in the streets (batman)!

2007-10-10T20:17:00.000-05:00

I had a jaw dropping experience earlier this week.

Adolfo and I were driving to the hotel of a friend (my first visitor!) and at an intersection there were guys selling things, lots of things. This is normal.

One guy was selling things that looked to me like something for the kitchen, rectangular with holes in them. The holes were all the same size, about 1-2 inch diameter. And, the guy was yelling "oblea" so I asked Adolfo what these things were, thinking they were for the kitchen and I might need one.

Adolfo said they are "obleas" (like I knew what that was), I said, tell me more...

He said, you know when the priest gives the communion and they give you the little bread, this is the left over part.

I said "WHAT!"

He said the priest does not bless this part of the bread and people buy it for snacks.

I was stunned. I'm learning so much about Catholicism in Mexico. I also thought, I wonder what they do with the left over parts in the US? They certainly don't sell them in the streets. But, I’m thinking an after-church snack wouldn’t be a bad idea!

Bus update

2007-10-10T19:30:00.000-05:00

Not much exciting has happened lately.

Several bus rides were non-eventful and the iconography was small to medium sized and limited to one or two items.

I did have a non-eventful bus ride with a couple virgin decals and a Jesus decal, but there were also a couple pictures of Micky Mouse, and a cartoon dog superhero (super dog?) taking the place usually occupied by Jesus.

I told my co-worker, when I arrived at work (she knows about my hypothesis) and she said, "oh, they canceled each other out." So there's another possibility.

To be continued...

Random thoughts on Language

2007-10-07T19:39:00.000-05:00

I realized when looking through the archives that I haven’t written much about language. Since then, I’ve been trying to organize my thoughts on the subject and have had a difficult time trying to stay coherent, so bear with me.

While we have friends who speak English, almost all of our social activities take place in Spanish. I am really grateful for this, as it provides me with a relaxed place where I can try to explain myself to friendly people and practice, practice, practice.

I still have moments when trying to tell complicated stories when I see people’s faces go blank and I realize that I’m not making sense and I’ve lost them.

I try really hard to speak Spanish with Adolfo when we are out in public, because I want people to hear me speaking Spanish and I want them to speak to me in Spanish. In fact, it makes me feel a confusing combination of uncomfortable and at ease to be out in public speaking English. At ease, because I’m speaking in my native language and uncomfortable, because I want the people around me to know that I speak Spanish.

Last week, we went to a panel discussion about the U.S. government’s point of view about migration from Mexico (the Consul General spoke). I felt proud and terrified that I was able to stand up during the question and answer period and tell the guy, in Spanish, that I thought he had no idea what he was talking about (in the nicest possible way).

A woman approached me after the discussion to ask if I would be willing to be interviewed about migration on her radio show on the university’s radio station. We exchanged e-mail addresses. (Now that will be terrifying, if it happens.)

I am still petrified of the phone and am going to have to start answering the phone at work next week.

I’m learning more Mexicanisms, and I really like the phrase “sacada de onda” which has a literal translation of “taken out of, or removed from, the wave.” It means: shocked or stunned. Mexicans are really fond of the wave, using such phrases as, "que onda?" as a greeting, like “how’s the wave?” which really means something more like “what’s up?” The onda can be loosely translated as the happenings or the theme.

I’m still not comfortable enough in my Spanish to say “Órale” or “Mande” which are both very Mexican words.

Órale is an affirmative word used to agree with someone or to signify that something is impressive. Órale is also a stereotype-inducing word and me using the word Órale is probably something akin to a foreigner in Texas saying y’all. People would notice and not for the best reason.

Mande is a response like “What?” except that it comes from a root word, which is related to the English word Mandate. Mande, literally is a request for the other person to mandate something, or to order them to do something. In other Spanish-speaking countries, mande is a word used by servants asking to be ordered to do something. In Mexico, mande has lost that boss-servant connotation, but for those of us who learned Spanish outside of Mexico, it is very difficult to un-learn these lessons.

Hypothesis

2007-10-02T21:15:00.000-05:00

I'm working on a hypothesis right now. So far, I've only had 3 bus rides to test my hypothesis, which is not a large enough sample size to draw any sort of conclusions.

Here it is:

There is a correlation between the craziness of the bus driver's driving and the size of his Jesus.

Since the sample size only consists of 3 rides, I'll describe the driving and the Jesuses (Jesi?)

1. Crazy, crazy driving - we were weaving pretty fast and stopping pretty hard in the first place, and then we clipped another bus while passing it at a stop sign! The other bus passed us back and then blocked my bus and stopped. The driver of the other bus got out (he was blocking both lanes of traffic when he did this) and came onto my bus where he proceeded to berate my bus driver, who in turn handed him some money to repair his side mirror. My triceps are sore today from holding on.

Jesus - extra large (foot and a half or two foot) Jesus on a HOT PINK CROSS! Also, there was a bloody crown of thorns Jesus decal on an interior window.

2. Calm driving - this morning my bus driver was rather average and nothing exciting happened.

Jesus - modest-sized, gold colored Jesus on a cross with some rosary beads.

3. Calm driving - there was some extra horn honking, but nothing too excessive. No excitement.

Jesus - 6 inch Jesus bust (from the shoulders up), nothing too elaborate.

Well, this is all I have for now, I can't draw conclusions at this early date, so I'll keep looking out for more samples.

Learning more about the bus

2007-09-28T20:00:00.000-05:00

I ride the bus during rush hour. This usually means that the bus is packed to the rafters. It can also mean that the first bus or two that pass me do not stop, as they are too full for another person to board. And, sometimes the bus stops and only opens the back doors and not the front door.

There are some differences, I am now recalling, between how the bus operates here and how the bus operated in Quito. (Note: mass generalizations follow, be careful about mass generalizations because there are always exceptions)

1. The buses here all operate with the doors closed; in Quito, sometimes the front door would stay open.

2. The bus driver takes the money and makes the change; in Quito, the bus driver usually had a helper in the form of a small boy (for the working class bus) or a woman in a business suit sitting behind a small desk (for the ‘fancy’ bus) who took the money and made the change.

AND 3. in Quito if I was boarding the working class bus and it was packed, the driver would open both front and back doors and we would pile in through both. I didn’t have to worry about where I ended up on the bus, because the small boy would come by and take my money before I got off the bus.

So, what were the people doing who boarded on the back of the bus when the driver wouldn’t open the front door? This would happen sometimes in the morning when I was trying to get to work and I would not board these buses because I didn’t know if the people who boarded on the back door were paying their bus fare. I wasn’t really concerned that they weren’t paying, but I want to pay my bus fare and was concerned that I would not be physically able to pay.

I was on a very crowded bus yesterday and the bus driver opened the back door at one stop and people got on at the back door. Several moments later the guy next to me turned and handed me 10 pesos, which he had taken from the guy behind him. I passed it to the guy in front of me who asked, “for 2 or for 1?” meaning, “is this to pay the fare for 2 people or for 1 person?” (the fare is $4.50). I had no idea and looked to the guy behind me, who said for two. He passed the money forward toward the bus driver. Moments later, 1 peso and a bus fare receipt were passed back. This happened again with another rider at the next stop.

Ah ha! So, now I feel confident that I can wedge myself into the bus on the back door if I need to, pay my bus fare, and get to work on time!

Sneaking out the trash

2007-09-25T20:56:00.000-05:00

We have a concierge in our building. There are 4 apartments for tenants and one more apartment for a guy, and his family, who helps care for us and the building. We pay him every other month for all the work he does: sweeping, scrubbing the stairs, maintaining the plants and trees, keeping the building in gas and water service, general vigilance.

He is a really good guy and also does some things that we consider extra. If he's around when I come home from grocery shopping, he will help me bring up all my bags. If we need help with something and he's around, he'll offer to help, sometimes we accept if we really need the help.

The people who live below us, apparently, do not think these things are extra and we have seen him washing their car and we saw them ask him to change their flat tire, while they stood around and watched! This makes us uncomfortable. The people below us make us uncomfortable in general, but that's another story.

This weekend when we were coming home from somewhere, he stopped us at the door and told us that the owner of the building has asked him to take out everyone's trash. We are to leave our trash in the stairwell, and he will deposit it in the bin.

Hmm... The trash bin (functions like a dumpster) sits in front of the apartment and is basically on the way out the door. All our trash is in small grocery bags, we have no large kitchen trash, so the trash goes out often. We think this is crossing the line. There is no reason why we cannot take out our own trash.

So, on Monday morning I sneaked out the trash and deposited it in the bin myself on my way to the bus. Carefully avoiding our concierge, I thought, now this is a strange new experience!

VISA!

2007-09-25T20:44:00.000-05:00

AH HA!

I am now the proud possessor of a shiny new FM-3 visa. It's good for one year (renewable up to 5) and I am free to work at my current job, open a bank account, put the electric bill in my name and get a cell phone with a plan (instead of the pay as you go kind), among other (not very) exciting things that happen when you are not a tourist.

(If you are wondering, I am very much aware of my privilege and that this process is not possible in reverse - Mexico to US instead of US to Mexico.)

We are going to celebrate this weekend, as we are both too exhausted from our working schedules to celebrate in the moment.

Breakfast again

2007-09-23T10:42:00.000-05:00

Update: I found the guavas!

We had fruit salad this morning of papayas, guavas and the kind of bananas I call "medium sized" (smaller than "regular sized" and bigger than the tiny ones). I squeezed a lime over the whole thing and chopped up a piloncillo (extra-brown sugar, tastes like molasses). It was very tasty!

(If you follow the link, note that my piloncillos are about half to 1/3 the size of those in the picture.)

Royal breakfast

2007-09-22T13:48:00.000-05:00

MMMMM,... tortas ahogadas for breakfast this morning....

(check the photos) My hands still smell like chiles. This was an especially good breakfast because after one full week of work, I started to feel a little bit ill and developed a runny/stuffy nose. So, what was needed for breakfast was spicy pork sandwiches!

This is one of the foods that exiled tapatios miss when they are away. A friend of ours in Mexico City will come to town every once in a while and he tries to eat tortas ahogadas when he's here.

Other notes from the week:

It makes me smile to see a very respectable-looking little old lady in front of me in line at the supermarket on Friday buying a very nice bottle of tequila and a bag of chicharones (pork rinds). I made up all kinds of stories in my head about what she was up to on a Friday evening. And, don’t write in the comments that she was taking them home to her husband, that’s not very interesting!

I’m getting a bit adventurous about the kinds of chiles I use. Last night, I made a spaghetti sauce with some ground meat, mushrooms and spinach with a chopped pasilla chile and a chipotle chile in adobo sauce. It was really lovely, not overly spicy, but with a nice little kick at the end.

There appear to only be guavas on trees here, I cannot find them at the grocery store or with the vegetable guy. There is plenty of guava juice in boxes, not the same.

Trees

2007-09-17T21:27:00.000-05:00

Check it out - Adolfo posted the tree photos.

Also, you should take a look at the Flag-Mobile. That's my personal favorite. Leading up to Independence Day there were all kinds of people selling flags. And, sometimes you would see these guys biking down the street with all the flags flying. It was a very moving sight!

Enjoy!

¡Que Viva!

2007-09-16T12:09:00.000-05:00

Last night was the celebration of Mexican Independence day. Today is actually the declared holiday, but most of the festivities were last night.

We didn’t stay up for all the celebrations (which could possibly last into the early morning).

A friend of Adolfo’s is leaving soon to begin his PhD at the Complutense in Madrid, so we had dinner in Zapopan (one of those “it use to be a small town and now it’s a suburb” kind of places). Before dinner we went to the Museo de Arte de Zapopan to see a photo exhibit of migration. It was pretty good and Adolfo and I realized that we had actually seen parts of this exhibit in Zacatecas, while on the grand journey. I’ve been to this museum before, and I always want it to be more than it is. It’s a decent small museum, but I want it to be better.

After dinner, we walked around the plaza and took in the sights. We wanted to stay for the Grito, but we were told that the Mayor of Zapopan wouldn't begin speaking until about 11:30pm. (If you happen to be in Mexico City, the President gives the Grito.)

The Grito is basically part of the speech given by Hidalgo calling for the independence of Mexico. He ended the speech with, “¡Mexicanos, viva México!” Which was extra exciting, because the country was called New Spain at the time.

We decided to head out. There is a sort of New Year’s Eve/Forth of July danger about driving home after the Grito (people get very drunk). Also, there are castillos de cuetes, or castles of fireworks. Which are wooden structures that spin and light up (they can be about 20 ft. tall) while fireworks shoot out of them. They seem very exciting and unreliable. (Hmm, wooden structure, shooting fire, crowds of people… I can see some of my cousins really enjoying this.) I have not actually seen one in action, but I think I’m ok with that.

So, instead of staying for the real action, we saw the drum and bugle corp play a few songs and we walked around the plaza looking at people and checking out the vendors. I really want a Virgin of Zapopan candle, but none of the vendors were hawking virgin candles. It was a nice calm evening, and we went home and laid in bed, listening to the fireworks and music until the wee hours.

Now, I think Dan should be able to build Aunt Mary a Castillo by next 4th of July.

A very good day

2007-09-11T17:02:00.000-05:00

Here are the good things that have happened so far today:

1. I received a call from the lawyers at the U and I now have a letter from immigration stating that I am authorized to work. This is not the same as a work visa, but we are on our way and the work visa should arrive in the middle of next week. This call came about 3 days BEFORE I was expecting it, which means, in the bureaucracy games it’s US – 0, Mexico – 1.

So, I may be able to go to work as early as tomorrow and will be in the office on Monday at the latest (pending HR difficulties).

2. I went to the grocery store this morning, before I got the call from the U, and I found the turmeric! I saw these little knobby things next to the ginger and I thought – that looks like fresh turmeric. I asked the guy stocking the veggies if he could tell me what it was (just to confirm) and he said, confidently, “That’s saffron.” Umm… It was most definitely not saffron, but I recalled that my dictionary had listed the translation for turmeric as both cúrcuma AND azafrán. I said, “Are you sure it’s not turmeric (cúrcuma)? And he said, “Here we call it saffron,” end of discussion.

I thought, well as long as they don’t charge me for saffron, I’ll be happy. When I got to the check out, the check-out-girl asked me what was in my little bag. I said, “I believe it’s turmeric (cúrcuma) but the guy told me it’s saffron.” She asked the girl at the next checkout what the number was for ginger! I could have cared less. In fact, surely it is cheaper to buy fresh ginger than to buy fresh turmeric, right?

3. And, while we were eating lunch the buzzer rang and there was a deliveryman with a bunch of my books from California (I had accidentally left), a computer program for Adolfo and my new Cook’s Illustrated! Yea to Adolfo’s brother and mother for coordinating the shipment!

Guayaba

2007-09-10T19:27:00.000-05:00

I ate my first fresh guava today! Not only that, but I also picked my first guava today.

There is a guava tree between my house and the tortilla man. We have noticed this tree before, but the guavas are generally either broken on the ground or very high up in the tree. However, today when I left the house to go by my 3 kilos of tortillas, I noticed some very ominous and brooding clouds, so I grabbed Adolfo’s umbrella.

Adolfo’s umbrella is of the large variety with the crooked handle (as opposed to mine which are compactable so they fit discreetly in my backpack). Do you see where I’m going with this? So, in the end I get my tortillas and on the way back I peered up at the guava tree. I found one acceptable guava (the other one had bug holes visible from where I stood) and I hooked it with my umbrella handle!

I shared it with Adolfo when he got home and we each had half of a very excellent guava. Mmmm…. And, it didn’t even rain.

Apartment Hunting?

2007-09-09T22:08:00.000-05:00

Hmm, we just finished moving. We haven’t hung any pictures on the walls. We went and looked at an apartment this weekend.

Why? Well, we are in a bit of a strange situation. We are living in a friend’s apartment. We are not yet paying rent, because he told us not to worry about it, he's a super-fantastic friend, and we can’t afford to pay rent right now anyway. We need to start paying rent somewhere, and we are afraid that we cannot afford the apartment where we are currently staying. We especially need to pay rent as soon as I start getting a paycheck. Which, as we all know, hasn’t happened yet.

Adolfo found out that the sister of a friend of his brother’s (are you following) is leaving the country for 10 months and wants to sublet her apartment. So, we went to see it.

The pros are: good location, quiet neighbors, decent inside/outside space (2 very small balconies and two patios), two good-sized bedrooms, marble tile floors, lots of closet space, washing machine, all appliances and major furniture will stay in the apartment and it’s CHEAP!

The cons are: ACK! Moving again! And then 10 months later – ACK! Moving again!, no parking spaces, it’s a little dark compared to where we are now, and the kitchen is awful (It would be the smallest and most inconvenient kitchen I have ever had. I don’t even know where I could chop an onion in this kitchen.), oh my goodness, the kitchen is awful.

So, we decided we are not going to take it. But, the good thing about all this is that we are seeing what else is out there for when we really do need to move. We know that finding a place with a good kitchen is going to be a challenge. And, we have a pretty good kitchen right now (despite the oven).

Yoga for people who are stressed out while waiting for their visas

2007-09-06T17:31:00.000-05:00

I think that book is yet to be written.

I just got back from driving all over town. I bought a book on yoga and a yoga mat. So after I recover a bit from the drive (the round-abouts are really nerve wracking) and have a glass of juice, I might try out some yoga in my bedroom.

I also went to the English language bookstore yesterday and I got "Portuguese Irregular Verbs" by that guy who writes the #1 Ladies Detective series. It's a pretty small book, but I think it will keep me amused for a few moments.

Tomorrow, I am going with Adolfo to see a lecture by some Spanish architect (we'll see if I can understand anything he says - I find Spaniards have an accent that is particularly difficult for me) and then we are racing across town to try and catch the end of an art exhibit opening. Then we are heading back to the same bar as last weekend for the "after party" with the artist. One of Adolfo's friends is also the director of the organization that represents this artist.

Hopefully, it will be fun. I get a little starved for social activities by the middle of the week. So, having a night out usually helps me feel like I'm actually living in this city, instead of just hanging out in my apartment (which is a lot like any other apartment I've had, only much, much bigger) waiting for my visa.

The War on Trees

2007-09-06T17:23:00.001-05:00

Now appears to be the season in Guadalajara to hack all the trees to bits.

I'm not sure why, and I'll try to get some pictures, but apparently if you have a few extra pesos to spend, you hire some guys to come over with a big truck and chainsaws and they will cut all the major limbs off all your trees for you.

I'm perplexed. Adolfo says he never noticed this before.

I thought maybe it had something to do with power lines. But, I don't think you need to strip the entire tree of its branches if you have power lines overhead. Also, some trees are nowhere near power lines.

Maybe the tapatios don't like shade.

Fun in the rain

2007-09-03T10:37:00.000-05:00

It rained almost all weekend and every time we left the house, we forgot to bring the umbrella. We had a very nice and eclectic weekend.

First, on Friday night, we went out to dinner to celebrate the first paycheck since arriving in Guadalajara! Yea! We had some excellent mole enchiladas and sopes de pollo. The lighting was very low and romantic, so the pictures turned out horrible.

We went to see the parade of the International Mariachi Festival, on Saturday. It was a lot of fun (and free!) and Adolfo posted some of the pictures on his site. (Check out the picture of the Mariachi de Estocolmo, sound it out, that’s right it’s the Mariachis of Stockholm!) There were mariachi groups from all over the world. Mostly, the geography was focused on the Americas, with California making a nice showing, and included Costa Rica, Cuba and Venezuela. In the middle of the parade, as you can see in the photos, it began to downpour! We took shelter under a tree in the plaza in front of the Templo San Francisco de Asis.

Later that night, we met up with some of the people Adolfo works with and went to a new bar in town. It was very nice; there were a couple Parisians and another guy who spent some time in Boston and New York. We got home very late.

Sunday was spent mostly recovering. It was cold and rainy most of the day. We didn’t have hangovers, since we had about 2 drinks in the 5 hours we spent at this bar. But, coming from California, we are unaccustomed to the smoky bar. I had a scratchy throat most of the day and my eyes felt like they were covered with sandpaper. We drank tea and had soup.

Sunday evening, we went to a café to meet with one of Adolfo’s high school friends. It was very nice and two hot chocolates made my throat feel much better. We had a very nice conversation about literature, the importance of reading, among other things. (He’s a fan of Oliver Sacks and has been reading War and Peace over the last 3 months.) Also, this friend is not an architect, a rarity among the friends, so the conversations are more even and less focused on one subject.

It was a very nice weekend, even if there was no time for Tortas Ahogadas. Next weekend, we are planning to go to an art exhibit opening and perhaps return to the same bar (as it is next to the art museum).

Tortilla Soup

2007-09-03T09:42:00.000-05:00

This recipe is one that we use to make often. I made it for lunch this weekend and it turned out quite good. We used a recipe from Cooks Ilustrated and Rick Bayless’s Mexico: One plate at a time, and sort of mashed them together in the way that suited us best.

6-7 tortillas
1 chile pasilla or chile ancho
2 T. vegetable oil
1 white onion
4 cloves garlic
4 small tomatoes (like roma, or a can of diced tomatoes)
2 T. vegetable oil
4-6 chicken thighs, or other chicken parts (not all breast meat)
1-2 sprigs epazote (Good Luck!)
9 c. water (part chicken broth, or with additional ½ onion and 2 cloves garlic, or both)
salt
lime wedges
queso cotija (or some other kind of dry salty cheese)
avocado
crema (or sour cream) (optional)

1st - cut tortillas in strips that are ~ ½ in. wide and 1 ½ in. long. Fry, slowly, at a medium heat in a skillet with oil until brown and crisp. When the tortillas hit the oil they will soak it all up, so stir frequently in the first minute or two so that all the tortilla pieces get some oil on them. Be patient, stir occasionally. This should take between 10 and 30 minutes, or so.

2nd - place chicken thighs and epazote in water with broth. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer until thighs are cooked, about 15 minutes.

3rd - quarter onion and place in food processor with garlic. Process until finely chopped.

4th - once tortillas are crunchy and brown remove from skillet to a paper towel-lined plate. Remove stem and seeds from chile and tear into flat pieces. In the same hot skillet, briefly toast until they smell nice, about 1 minute. Place on the same plate with the tortillas.

5th - remove chicken from broth and skin and de-bone, if necessary. Remove the epazote from the broth (and any onions or garlic). Shred meat and return to broth.

6th - heat skillet with vegetable oil and when oil shimmers, add onion and garlic mixture. While the onion and garlic fry, add tomatoes to the food processor and process until finely chopped. (Some people will want to skin the tomatoes first. It’s up to you. The skin will separate in your soup.)

7th - after the onions and garlic have started to turn a bit translucent, but not brown, add the tomatoes. Fry until they reach the consistency of tomato paste (10 minutes or so).

8th - carefully transfer tomato mixture into broth and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Taste for salt.

Assembly: In each bowl place a small handful of tortillas, some sliced avocado, crumbled chile and crumbled queso cotija (some people put runny monterrey jack in their tortilla soup, but I prefer a hard, dry, salty cheese in mine). Ladle soup over the garnishes. Serve with lime wedges and creama (if you like).

The soup will freeze without the garnishes. The tortillas and chile will keep in a sealed plastic bag.

Impatient

2007-08-30T16:48:00.000-05:00

This afternoon, I raced around the city collecting and filing paperwork and standing in bank lines. I was finally able to submit my documents and payment in order to get my visa changed. This is good. I haven’t been sleeping well because of all the waiting for paperwork business and I hope this will help lower the stress level.

The lawyers tell me that they hope it will take less than 10 days for my visa to be changed and then we have to submit more paperwork and pay another fee to get the work permit. That may take an additional 10 days. The slow pace is killing me!

I’ve been finding myself getting angry, again, at the stupid US passport agency. Had I been able to apply for the visa in the states, I would only have to apply for the work permit now. RAR! And yet, I appear to be unable to change the past. (“Let it go,” says the chorus in my head.)

So, realistically, I may not be back at work until October.

I think I’m going to buy a Yoga book at the books store. That will solve all my problems, right? (“Buying more books always helps,” says the chorus.)

Ha!

Less like recipes, more like descriptions

2007-08-28T10:08:00.000-05:00

Part 2 of 2
(Unless you are along the northern border (Sonora, Chihuahua, etc.), all tortillas are corn.)

Agua de Jamaica and Salsa de Tomate Verde (or more commonly called Salsa Verde) from “The Essential Cuisines of Mexico” by Diana Kennedy are in our regular rotation. My mother has this cookbook and it’s pretty fantastic. In fact, they sell her cookbooks in the bookstores here.

My father has been making the Carnitas. And, before we left the states, we made the Chilorio a couple times. I would really like to make the Chilorio again, but we don’t have a blender right now and it is essential for this recipe. Adolfo also made the Ceviche for a day at the beach; it was fantastic. All these come from the Kennedy book.

As soon as we got here, I made a pot of black beans (with a quartered onion and a sprig of epazote). I froze the beans in freezer boxes and we’ve been getting them out and ‘re-frying’ them as needed.

This past weekend, we had a heavy breakfast with ¾ of 1 link of chorizo sausage fried to a crumble. And, then I scrambled in 4 eggs. We ate this with some re-fried beans and warmed tortillas. Salsa Verde over everything and served along side some very excellent coffee. It was very tasty. (We had salad for lunch that day.)

We have quesadillas for dinner quite often.

Take two tortillas and place a little slice of cheese, perhaps a piece of ham or a thin spread of refried beans between them. Toast, don’t fry, on a hot, dry comal (skillet or griddle, preferably cast iron or something that’s not Teflon). When they are nice and toasty on one side, flip and toast on the other side. Remove from the heat and carefully open the quesadilla. Fill with thin slices of tomato, salsa, hot sauce, avocado slices, chopped cilantro or something else that strikes your fancy. Close the quesadilla and carefully eat while leaning over your plate, they can get quite messy.

I would advise that the quality of your quesadilla will vary according to the quality of your tortillas – so get the best ones you can find!

This is what I can remember making in the way of Mexican food. Of course, we have eaten some really excellent food out of the house, but I can’t really tell you how to make it.

Adolfo says that maybe this weekend we will go get some Tortas Ahogadas. (That’s the teaser, I’ll tell you all about it after we eat them!)

Recipes for down-home Mexican cookin’

2007-08-27T21:13:00.000-05:00

Part 1 of 2

Not really, those recipes are way to involved for us right now. Here are some things that we’ve made in the recent past (parts 1 and 2). By way of disclaimer: they may include ingredients that are either difficult to find, or expensive for those of you in colder climates or locations with a very small Mexican population (perhaps, France or Japan).

Side of the road salad
(not really a title, but it’s what I think of when I want this salad)

I’ve never seen this salad on a menu. In fact, I’ve only ever seen this salad being sold out of little carts on the side of the road or in a small parking lot, think hot-dog vendor-style. Adolfo thinks it’s too dangerous (illness-wise) to buy this from the guys at the corner. Who, by the way, are always busy and seem to have a following. (I’m a bit more of a risk-taker in this department, but I still haven’t tried their wares.)

1 mango, peeled and cut in large dice
1 cucumber, peeled and cut into medium sized matchsticks
1 smallish jícama, peeled and cut into medium sized matchsticks

Combine with the juice of 1 large (or 2 small) lime(s), about 1/2 t. salt (good salt, if it makes a difference), and 1 t. of your best chile powder (or to taste). I used some Chile de Árbol powder when I made this yesterday.

(chile as opposed to chili, which is a mixture of spices, chile powder is a ground up dried chile pepper, if you have no choice go with the chili powder)

I didn’t measure the salt or the chile powder when I made it, and the guys at the corner don’t measure anything either.

More recipes and descriptions coming soon....

In the land of Chocolate

2007-08-26T19:42:00.000-05:00

I’m living in a country famous for its chocolate. The Aztecs introduced the Spanish conquistadors to chocolate. The word is Nahuatl in origin: xocolatl. There are factories in town that make chocolate tablets for hot chocolate. There are wooden instruments made just for stirring, or frothing, your hot chocolate.

So, where do they hide the baking chocolate?

I cannot find it. I can only find coco from Hershey’s and chocolate chips from Hershey’s (mmm, waxy). I have yet to find the dutched coco, which is my preferred kind of coco. In fact, I haven’t found any coco that is not Hershey’s.

I live in the second largest city in Mexico; I know it’s out there somewhere. I haven’t given up yet.

However, desperate for brownies, I used the hot chocolate tablets. First, I consulted my mother and my Joy of Cooking and figured out that I should not add very much extra sugar to my brownies, because the tablet was going to have quite a lot of sugar in it already.

They turned out pretty good. I think, if I make them again by this method, I might just leave out any extra sugar. But, I’m still on the lookout for the real baking chocolate.

I think I found a hunk of chocolate that I can chip up for cookies. The woman who sold it to me thought I could bake with it, but it has quite a lot of sugar and it not the “unsweetened baking chocolate” I seek. She gave me a taste, and it was good and she said it was made in Mexico. This is a good start.

I’m still on the lookout for several things: baking chocolate, almond extract, and turmeric are high on my list.

Surprisingly, I’ve been able to find: tofu (fresh!), hoisin sauce, and fresh ginger.

And, of course, there are many things wish are both plentiful and fantastically good: cheeses (panela, cotija, something I like to call ‘ricotta’ - the woman that sells it to me calls it something else), chiles (I’m starting a collection! Fresh, dried, powdered, they’re all good.), and tortillas (mmmm…).

Hurricane Weather

2007-08-23T13:37:00.000-05:00

I've been telling everyone that Dean wasn't anywhere near us and that we were not affected at all, but apparently we are having some hurricane weather.

It is very cloudy.

That's it, clouds.

Loros

2007-08-23T09:38:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to get a picture of the wild parrots that frequent our neighborhood, but I just can't get to the camera fast enough.

They come in flocks, usually, and are incredibly loud. We can hear them coming like an invasion, and yet they are also very fast and disappear into our trees. They are also green, like the trees. They taunt us with their squawking, but we cannot see them.

Someday soon, there will be photos of parrots. (New, non-parrot, photos went up in the last week if you haven't checked it out.)

Update on the Job Front

2007-08-20T17:00:00.000-05:00

I'm out of work until my visa gets straightened out. I am very much wanted at my office and they are helping me with everything they can in order to expedite the request.

However, the university lawyers (who are going to help me submit my paperwork) advised us all that I am better off waiting at home until the visa comes.

This afternoon, I turned in all the paperwork for the lawyers to revise before submitting the visa application. My office tells me that they are hopeful I will be back to work by the 15th of September.

Who? Oh, yeah, that’s me.

2007-08-19T14:28:00.000-05:00

I’ve become a wife. Not in the legal sense of the word, but in the cultural sense.

Couples just don’t live together if they are not married. And, it appears to be easier for people to just go ahead and call us married. Even if said people know us very, very well. It is a very simple solution to a possibly tricky moral dilemma.

I wasn’t too taken aback about by our new monikers when people we didn’t know, or barely knew, called us maridos. Occasionally, in the States, people I didn’t know very well would ask about my husband, especially if I spoke about Adolfo without naming our relationship.

However, in April, when we came for Adolfo’s interview, a friend of ours gave us a ride to the interview. At the gated entrance, the guard asked who was in the car. Our friend responded that it was el architecto Adolfo PI y su esposa. I was quite surprised, because this friend knows us very well, and is quite aware that we are not married.

Now, it is a common occurrence. I am often referred to as a wife and he, as my husband. We don’t correct people. For one, they actually know that we are not married (family members, close friends, etc.). And, two, we might then enter into a complicated discussion of WHY we are not married. I have a feeling that, “We’re not that interested right now, maybe later,” or “We’re too busy with other things,” are not going to be acceptable reasons.

I also wonder if this is a language issue. It’s much easier for someone to ask me about my suegro (father-in-law) than about el padre de tu novio. And, since my suegro lives very close to us, it’s a common question.

I used to tell people that Adolfo and I were fiancés, in order to try to bridge the gap. But, then I would slip up and call him my boyfriend. I guess I just wasn’t very committed to the fiancé status.

So, now we just give each other a sly smile when people refer to us as married, it’s as if we are being sneaky. But, is it really being sneaky if everyone knows the secret?

Explaination of the lunch-time accident

2007-08-15T12:02:00.000-05:00

Juli wants to know more about the fender-bender, but my response and explanation are took long for the comments section, so I’m making it a new entry:

When we got to the corner where the accident occurred, a policeman was there. The people involved in the accident were moving the cars to a side street. The police took the registration and identification papers from both parties. Then, everyone starts calling their insurance companies and anyone else they know who might be helpful (the guy’s brother worked for the Transportation Department, so he was trying to get a hold of him). The police, call for more police, and everyone discusses the situation.

After about 45 minutes, one of the insurance companies shows up. They fill out paperwork and take photos. Everyone discusses the situation.

Later, the other insurance company arrives. They fill out paperwork and take photos. Everyone discusses the situation.

The police say they want to impound the car of the friend because he doesn’t have his license. The guy finally gets a hold of his brother. The brother can’t come to the scene, but will send a co-worker. The police discuss the situation.

I proceed to get a nasty sunburn (pasty white girl). We discuss the situation.

The insurance company guys discuss the situation and try to come up with an agreement between them (the car owners are not involved in this conversation).

Finally, the insurance company guys stamp all the paperwork and decide that each will pay for their own client’s car repairs – both parties are at fault. And, they leave.

The police still have the IDs and are threatening to impound the car.

Finally, they decide that the brother’s co-worker doesn’t need to show up and they will give back the IDs and papers. They decide not to impound the car.

We are starving. We all go eat a very nice lunch.

This is how you hope the situation will go. There was no fighting, no injury and no blood. If someone is injured, you will go to jail until your insurance company bails you out, automatically.

Stinking government

2007-08-14T10:17:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was not a very good day.

I have been trying to get my paperwork in order so that I can apply to change my visa status. I am not able to work or get paid until this change happens. Luckily for me the university is on vacation for 2 weeks. So, I have until the 20th when everyone comes back from vacation to get my papers together for my office to submit them to the lawyers. And, try to get myself back to work as soon as possible. They told me at the office they would wait for me, but I need to get this stuff worked out fast, fast, fast.

The first step in this process is for me to send my diplomas to their respective states in order to get them stamped, notarized and apostillized (if that's a word). My mother helped with my undergraduate degree and it went very smoothly. My master's degree has been a whole different matter.

It took me longer to get the process worked out and once I finally sent off the paperwork, I started calling (thank goodness for Skype!) the office where it was sent to check on the status. They seemed to not be able to tell me anything and so I waited a day and called again. Still, no information. I was told to call back once the "5 business days" for processing had passed. I called again on the 4th day and was finally able to speak with the person who processed these requests and she informed me that she didn't have my documents and they had never crossed her desk!

So, I gave her the information from the UPS site about when, where and by whom the packet was received. She then told me that she was in a different city from the one where my documents were received! Although I had been calling the phone number listed for the smaller office (where I send my documents), the call was transfered (without anyone telling me) to the bigger office.

She told me she would ask them about my papers and I took down her e-mail address. Fifteen minutes later, I receive an e-mail from her saying that they did receive my papers and they did not receive my payment, so they returned the documents to me by regular mail to Mexico. (I proceeded to have a minor heart attack.)

I was quite shocked by this (and I did include a check with the mailing, I don't know what they did with it), and fired off an e-mail to her asking why they would return my documents to Mexico, when I paid (addressed, stamped envelope) to have them returned to a friend in the same city where the office was located.

I also proceeded to investigate the possibility of re-ordering my diploma and how long that takes (about 2 weeks if all goes well), since it has been taking almost a month for regular mail to arrive from foreign locations.

She responded saying that the other office told her they returned the documents where ever I had wanted them sent, whatever it said on the envelope.

So, now my friend is on 'high alert' for my documents and promised to race them back over to the state office with the measly $3 fee (!@*#&@*#$) and try to get them processed as soon as possible. (update: I called and finally talked to the small office this morning and they did indeed return my documents to Mexico. They were sent Thursday, so I'll look for them to arrive in September. My wonderful friend now has a copy of my diploma and is working on getting it notarized so that the notarized copy can be apostillized.)

Adolfo is stunned that I continue to have so many problems with the US government (this time at the state level). He had been promising me that the Mexican bureaucracy was much more difficult. He hasn't been making that claim so loudly in recent days.

So, this all happened in the afternoon. In the morning, I went to see my vegetable guy and get some provisions. While I was parked in front of the market, someone hit my side mirror on the driver's side and almost took it off the car. So now, my mirror is broken (not the glass, just the plastic).

One of our friends also called in the morning to say that he wasn't going to be able to meet up with Adolfo, because as he was driving to work, he was hit by a bus! He was fine and miraculously, so was his car.

RAR! What a stressful day!

Hooks

2007-08-11T19:21:00.000-05:00

"What is that hook for?" I asked innocently, while we were standing on our balcony.

"They are for hanging your hammock. See there is another one over here."

Oh... my... goodness. As soon as we get a paycheck around here, we need to go hammock shopping!

Recipe for a cell phone

2007-08-09T17:31:00.000-05:00

Take 1 Adolfo being 45 minutes late to meet me at a place outside our home;

Add 1 Friend of a friend calling to say that on his way to join us for lunch he was in a fender bender at the corner before the restaurant (literally 2 blocks away);

Combine both of these things happening on the same day and mull over several drinks during a very late lunch.

We went from lunch to a Sanborns and purchased a cell phone with a pay-as-you-go plan.

As they say in Mexico, we now work for Slim (or if you prefer, "eSlim"). The running joke here is that everyone works for Carlos Slim. Who, if you don't know, is the world's richest man. The Slim family is said to control about 7% of the Mexican GNP. It's practically impossible to not buy something from one of his companies. (i.e. Do you want to have a phone? Land line or cell, it doesn't matter, he owns both.)

So, there we are, working for Slim.

Also, on a related note, I was able to learn what happens here when you get into a fender bender. Very interesting and good to know, without either of us getting into an accident. Bonus. (fyi - It takes about 2 hours to resolve, if all goes well and no one is injured.)

Fruity Sauce

2007-08-07T11:38:00.000-05:00

Seen at the grocery store this morning:

"OK $!*$%# Fruity Sauce"

It's an import from the UK. What do you put this sauce on?

Actually the $!*$%# part was Chinese, but it looked like fake swear words to me! And, are those thinly veiled homosexual threats? I'll try to bring my camera next time, so you can see it for yourselves.

Also:

“Carne Vegetariana” (or fake meat, note that it is labeled vegetarian)

First ingredient: soya texturizada
Second ingredient: caldo de res

That's right folks, the second ingredient on the vegetarian meat is Beef Broth! I actually want to try this one. It was hamburger style and it looked better than the actual hamburger sitting next to it.

Recent Food Items

2007-08-06T09:24:00.000-05:00

The successes and failures:

Oatmeal Chippers (Farm Journal, Homemade Cookies)
Same-ole, Same-ole. This was my oven test. After the date bars, I figured I should go back to the tried and true. They didn't turn out like previous batches, but I've made this recipe so many times that I figured it would be hard to fail. I cooked them twice as long as the recipe calls for (15 minutes) and I turned up the oven temperature after almost every batch.
Verdict - very successful (If I didn't have such a strong sense of how they should be, I would think they are just right. I'm pretty sure we will choke them down.)

Fresh spinach, fresh ricotta and leftover rice - used in Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone - Spinach & Rice Gratin
The instructions say bake at 400F for 25 minutes until brown and puffy. I baked it at (who knows!) for 30 minutes and it turned neither brown, nor puffy. But, the recipe doesn't have any eggs in it, and everything is cooked on the stovetop before you put it in the oven, so we ate it as is. It was very good. The spinach was fantastic and we have enough leftovers for two lunches each.
Served with a quick spicy tomato sauce
Verdict - wildly successful (We had it re-heated in the oven for lunch and it was just as good. The taste reminds me of lasagna.)

Homemade granola (Mom style) with dried apricots and dates - put almost everything in the food processor because I needed to chop up the oats a little. I found some Rolled Oats (called Aplastados here), but they were imported from Spain and were very expensive, so I didn't buy them. I also included some puffed amaranth.
Verdict - very successful (I must make more today)

Chicken Thigh Stew - a riff on a Cooking Light recipe
The recipe is for a basic stew with chicken, potatoes, onions and carrots. I threw in some fresh, shelled peas just as we were about to sit down for lunch. And, I waited, and waited, and waited for them to turn green. 15 MINUTES later, they were hard as rocks. The peas were neither bright green nor brown/green, but we were starving, so we picked around the crunchy peas and ate the rest with some warm tortillas.
Verdict - stew: good, peas: bad

Jamaica (or Agua de Jamaica)
I actually used a recipe to make this sort-of-tea of hibiscus flowers. Diana Kennedy has a recipe, which I followed and not surprisingly, it turned out much better than my ‘throw everything into the pot and see what happens’ method.
Verdict - GONE! I made it last night and we drank the last of the 8 cups with our lunch!

I've made a few other things, but these are the highlights (or lowlights).

2007-08-04T18:22:00.000-05:00

Adolfo is now an independent man.

We bought a used car today and it has Jalisco license plates. So, Adolfo can now drive places by himself.

We found ourselves in a rather complicated transportation situation after arriving here. The car is mine. It is also from the US. And, under Mexican law, the only people who can drive my car without me being in the car are my immediate family members. If the car is found to be on the road without me, or an immediate family member of mine in the car, it can be confiscated by Customs.

So, the only time Adolfo can drive the car, is while I'm in the car. That means that if he needs to drive across town for a meeting, I have to go too.

Now, I no longer have to go to all the meetings! He can take his own car.

Nightmare

2007-08-04T10:40:00.000-05:00

I had a terrible dream last night. We were moving again.

I don’t know why we were moving, but I know it was not what I wanted. We hadn’t started packing and I was saying to Adolfo: our stuff won’t fit back into the car!

Adolfo told me this morning, not to worry. If we need to move again, we can hire movers. I didn't think that was the point. I just don't want to have to pack up our stuff again.

Ode to the bus

2007-08-01T19:19:00.000-05:00

I am beginning to ride the bus and am learning where the busses go that I want to take, and when to get off after they take a strange turn I wasn’t expecting. I already know there are at least 3 busses that will take me from near my apartment to my office. I can remember 2 of the numbers for these busses. Which means I am still asking when the busses stop, “Do you cross Avenida Mexico?" If they say yes, I can get to work.

Getting home is easier because I get off the bus near a shopping mall. The busses that go by the mall have its name printed on the front of the bus.

There are definite similarities between riding the bus in Guadalajara and riding the bus in Quito, much more so than riding the bus in Berkeley. In my experience, the bus is much more relaxed in Latin America.

Maybe not relaxing, but relaxed. First, and in my mind most importantly, you can either wait at a designated bus stop, or you can hail the bus. Just like hailing a taxi. I remember this being a rude awakening for me after returning from Quito and trying to hail the busses in Boston. I love the fact that if I see my bus coming and I’m not quite at the bus stop (or better yet, nowhere near a bus stop), I can stick my arm out and maybe he’ll stop.

The flip side of this, of course, is that the other day I was at the bus stop and I stuck my arm out to get the bus to stop and the bus didn’t stop because the bus driver was looking at something BEHIND him (head turned all the way). He never saw me.

One of my pet peeves in Berkeley was that you never knew if the people at the bus stop wanted the bus you were on or not. There was no signifying feature or look to give the bus and no arm movement to indicate that yes, I do want to get on your bus. This meant that if there was even one person at the bus stop, the bus driver had to pull over and stop the bus, open the door, and then the person would say, no, thanks. What a waste of time.

Secondly, there’s music. Maybe it’s the bus driver’s own heavy metal mix as he careens around the glorietas (roundabouts). Sometimes the bus driver will let on a person who plays an instrument and they will play a few songs before asking for some change. Here, it seems that they always ask the bus driver if they can come on the bus. I have not yet seen the bus driver say no, but I’m paying attention incase it happens.

Yesterday, on my way to work, a guy came on the bus with his guitar and played protest songs and told us how badly the workingman is treated in Mexico. He wasn’t bad, but he didn’t stop singing while I was on the bus, so I couldn’t figure out how to give him a few pesos. On the way home, a guy came on the bus and played some of the worst recorder I have heard outside a fourth grade classroom (sorry Cali!).

In addition, I have a little game I am playing with the bus on my way home. Because I get off the bus at this shopping mall, the traffic there is terrible. It seems to always be terrible, no matter what time of day. Because of this, the busses are supposed to wait until after the mall before they let people on and off the bus. This all makes sense and is better for the traffic pattern. But, I want to get off the bus in the middle of the mall, not at the end. So, when I see the mall beginning, I press the buzzer to let the driver know I want to get off the bus. And, then I wait to see if he will let me off at one of the stoplights or when we are stopped because of the traffic. Most of the time they don’t let me off the bus, but sometimes I can get off the bus on my street and not have to backtrack a few blocks. Small victories!

All this entertainment for the price of about 40 cents! It all just makes the bus rides in Berkeley seem boring by comparison.

Guadalajara, moving at the speed of light...

2007-07-28T22:02:00.000-05:00

I really thought things were supposed to move slower here. I planned for that.

After being here for a week and a half, I had my first interview for a job. That same day I received a call offering me the job, which I took. I start on Monday.

I thought I was going to be unemployed for a couple months. I was lining up projects in my head. I packed extra books to read, I was going to drink tea in the afternoon.

Now, I'm starting a scary/thrilling new job, which will use all my brainpower. I will need to really buckle-down with the Spanish. I'm really excited and stunned that it happened so fast.

So, I'm making more of an effort to speak Spanish with Adolfo and I need to find the radio news on the local stations instead of plugging the computer into the stereo to listen to NPR. We purchased two Spanish/English dictionaries today at the bookstore.

On the food front, I'm gaining independence and am able to get to the markets by myself. I also found the tofu or 'queso de soya', which I think doesn't sound as good. Today we had a Japanese curry for lunch! We also went to buy more tortillas this morning.

We found an excellent tortilleria, thanks to Adolfo's father, and we bought 2 kilos of fresh hot tortillas very soon after we arrived in town. My household of two has already eaten 2 KILOS of tortillas, and we had to return for more, today.

I have to get enrolled in a gym soon!

By the way: When I returned to the vegetable stand by myself a couple days ago, the vegetable guy remembered who I was and asked after my friend (Adolfo). We discussed many things over the vegetable stand, including how difficult it is to speak another language, what San Diego is like, what a good guy Abraham Lincoln was (the veggie guy is a fan). It was a fantastically bizarre conversation and I will be returning for more (conversation and vegetables).

Vegetables, among other things

2007-07-24T10:22:00.000-05:00

The market was a great success. I am pretty sure I can find the first one on my own. It was like a permanent structure farmers market; very good vegetables and cheese. I was also able to find the baking soda. Had I needed rice and sugar, those were also available in bulk.

The vendors were very nice and Adolfo taught me how to manage the system: you take a basket and pick your own vegatables (This is much prefered to the market in Paris where the vendor picked all the half-rotten peaches out for me. My stupid French was not good enough to say, "hey, put back those rotten peaches and give me the good ones!"), then you must step up on the little ledge between you, the veggies and the vendor, to signify that you are done and ready to pay.

I think the vendor knew everyone around the stand except for us. He took a look at us and said, in a very friendly way, "Are you guys from here?" Adolfo said he was from Guadalajara and I said that I was not. Then, not assuming anything, the vendor asked me where I was from. I replied that I was from the US.

We got lettuce and other salad ingredients, a few mangos and a papaya. Saddly, Adolfo said that he prefers cantalope (boring) to papaya (exciting and exotic!). Actually, I thought both were good (with a squeze of lime juice and a sprinkle of course sugar).

I'm planning to return to this stand for more vegetables.

After this, we went to a more industrial market. This is the place were the restaurants buy their veggies and they may only sell onions (or whatever produce) by the bushel. There were many photo ops that were missed. There are a couple stores there that sell bulk grains, dried fruits and nuts. Exactly what I needed for granola.

Unfortunately, the parking around this area is very exciting, a bit more exciting than I may be comfortable with right now. There are lots of large trucks loading and unloading, bicycles piled high with boxes of green onions and motorcycles weaving in and out of the traffic. Not to mention, the ever-present potholes and pedestrians.

Driving around this market seemed to be a two-person job. One person drives and looks out for pedestrians, potholes and produce-laden vehicles and the other looks for parking.

Last night, I tried the oven for the first time and produced a grand failure. There were too many variables. I was trying a recipe from a web site that had some errors in it, I had never made this recipe before and I didn't pre-heat the oven long enough. On top of that, I could not determine what exactly was the right place to point the knob for the oven temperature. So, at the end of the baking time, I looked at my "date bars" and they looked exactly the same as when I put them in the oven, except that 40 minutes later, they were a little bit warm. I upped the temperature and put them back in for another 40 minutes. Adolfo said they made the house smell great. But, that was about it.

If you haven't checked it out yet, Adolfo posted the photos of the trip.

Hurrah for the Joy of Cooking!

2007-07-20T13:21:00.000-05:00

I am constructing a very large grocery list so that tomorrow we can try to get enough food in the house that I can actually make something other than quesadillas. (The soup actually turned out to be very good and I put a pint away in the freezer.)

I purchased yeast and something called Royal at the grocery store the first time we went. But I wasn’t quite sure if Royal was baking soda or baking powder. With the help of my handy Joy of Cooking, I found that my Royal (subtitle: powder for baking) was in fact Double-Acting baking powder.

I need to get some baking soda, which I think I can find as the Spanish translation of sodium bicarbonate. Then, we will be able to make pancakes.

I’m also hoping to find the ingredients to make some granola. Adolfo says that he knows where I can find these things.

Poco a poco

2007-07-19T13:25:00.000-05:00

I have to get used to the fact that things take double the time and effort here. Yesterday, we stood in line for about 45 minutes at the cell phone company before we could get the different plans explained to us. We couldn't decide on the phone right away, so we had to take the information and walk away with no phone. We were hoping to get a cell phone today, but after we returned to the store and picked out a phone, we tried to pay. After trying a few times with Adolfo's credit card, the woman asked us if the card was international. Of course, all of our cards are international right now. She said, well our system cannot accept international cards. We could pay with cash, but with cash they also need proof of employment - which we don't have yet. So...,no cell phone for us.

We also went to the telephone company to reinstate our landline - which was cut off last night due to lack of payment. This, we were actually able to accomplish in less than an hour. Working through bureaucracies (domestic or foreign) has never been my favorite pastime. But, we are getting things accomplished, if only at a slower pace than either of us would like.

I'm beginning to get my bearings here and I think I can find the grocery store on my own now, but I don't have a lot of confidence about that statement. We did buy a very good map and when I got lost on Tuesday I was able to find myself and get home on my own.

I also downloaded Skype yesterday, but haven't really done anything with it. I have a Skype name, if you don't have a Mac and want to call me. We are discussing getting a US phone number (which we will have to pay for) and how much we might use this service. If you want my Skype address, e-mail me.

This is only our 4th day here.

Arrived

2007-07-17T18:19:00.000-05:00

We arrived safely in Guadalajara on Sunday afternoon. However, we didn't have a good internet connection until last night. We've been working like crazy since we arrived. Adolfo is having meeting after meeting and I am trying to put the kitchen together so we can at least feed ourselves. Tonight I'm going to try to cook a soup for dinner. This will be the first really cooking I've done in more than a month! We'll see how it goes - I only have one pot.

I'm almost getting used to answering the phone. The calls are either for Adolfo from people I know, or know of, or they are for the friends who used to live here. I'm still getting thrown off though. People here tend to not check their messages, so I just picked up the phone and the person on the other end said, "Whom am I speaking with?"

And I said, "What?" (not being accustomed to being challenged in this way when I answer the phone)

"I received a call from this number."

So I said, "Ok, who am I speaking with?" He gave me his name and I recognized that it was a friend of Adolfo's, but it was a strange (for me) and stressful way to begin a conversation.

The driving has also been challenging. I have gotten used to the fact that Adolfo likes to drive. I also realized, that I don't like to drive. And so, for the most part, when we are in the car together, he drives.

However, now because the car is mine and in my name and cannot be sold to a Mexican citizen under Mexican law, I have to be in the car when Adolfo is driving. Which means that I need to get accustomed to driving here as fast as possible because I need to drop him off at all his meetings and drive myself home. We are working on getting some other arrangement in order so that I don’t have to continue playing chauffer.

The apartment is fantastic and the weather here is great. We are a little bit far from the center, so there are not so many busses, but otherwise it is great. The apartment is actually bigger than we thought and Adolfo will have a very nice office here. I plan to have a garden on our balcony (south facing).

tacos ricos

2007-07-12T21:28:00.000-05:00

We made it all the way to Gómez Palacio today, after a very long day of driving. We had tacos of carne asada for dinner at a very excellent taqueria (El Caminero). Adolfo and I have been eating so much meat lately that we decided (with carne asada juice dripping down our arms) that we should become vegetarians for a few weeks after we arrive in Guadalajara.

On another amusing note, Blogger (administers this web site) has switched all my instructions into Spanish. I don't know if they caught on that the title is in Spanish or what, but they're on to me.

Tomorrow we are on to Zacatecas and will spend the weekend there. I hope to see some interesting silver jewlery.

La Frontera

2007-07-10T20:51:00.000-05:00

Today we bought two new tires for the trailer, because they were both dangerously bald. We are both really tired and crossing through customs was tedious. We decided to spend an extra day at Adolfo's mother's house in Ciudad Juárez. We have been taking a lot of pictures, but have been unable to post them for the time being. There should be a flood of new photos soon.

We tried to eat some traditional New Mexican food for lunch yesterday, but when we arrived in the tiny town where the restaurant was, it said closed on Sundays and Mondays. So we drove down the road to Texas and ate some flautas and gorditas. The gorditas had red chiles mixed in with the masa dough. They were really good. I felt like I had missed out on an opportunity to have some sopapillas, though.

Somehow the stress of moving has supplanted the stress of anticipating living in a foreign country. I have had several moments, usually when a friend or family member called, when I thought that I might not be able to just pick up the phone and call someone once we are in Guadalajara. I have not, however, been worried about my Spanish lately. I should be worried about my Spanish. Although Adolfo has been speaking Spanish to me a lot, I have been speaking to him in English, a lot.

We had lunch today with a few of the Aunts and an Uncle and they complimented me on my Spanish, but I'm still conjugating the verbs after I say them. (Cuando llegé, no cuando llego, cuando llegaré.... just to say, "When I arrive...")

Tomorrow is a free day in Juárez - México vs. Argentina in the Copa America. So, we have plans to sit in front of the TV for a few hours.

Not Driving

2007-07-07T20:18:00.000-05:00

It is very nice to not be driving. Or, to be more exact, Freja is a fantastic friend who not only is letting us stay at her house while they are out of town (although they are supposed to return tonight, if they can get out of the Dallas airport), she is also letting me drive her car around town. So, we have been able to cruise around town and leave my car in their carport to rest for a few days.

We have also been resting for a few days and Adolfo says that he now feels like he is on vacation. With the help of friends, I have been able to show him the Tucson that I really love.

For the last two days, we have been waking up late and heading out to different cafes around town with the laptop. We split a fruit and yoghurt plate and a scone or other sweet breakfast bread and have some coffee. We trade off checking e-mail and reading whatever newspaper is around. We plan our day while finishing our coffee.

We went to Tork's as soon as possible and, of course, it was an excellent experience and Khalifa wouldn't let us pay for our lunch. We had lunch at Tork's with Steve and he invited us over for mojitos at his house after he got off work. After several very good mojitos (made by a friend of Steve), we were convinced that Adolfo needed to experience the Sonoran Dogs of el Güero Canelo. After more discussion, and finishing the pitcher of mojitos, we decided that a taste test was in order to determine if the Northern or newer location was better or worse than the original South Tucson location. The original was deemed the unanimous winner. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of knowing the Sonoran Dog, it is - a hot dog, wrapped in bacon, grilled and placed in a white hot dog bun along with, pinto beans, onion, tomato, mayonnaise, mustard and topped with salsa and guacamole.

And, today, I've had a stomach ache all day long - I am not accustomed to eating Sonoran Dogs.

Tonight, I think we will finally make it to Yoshimatsu!

Tucson

2007-07-06T12:47:00.000-05:00

We made it to Tucson last night, after a VERY long day of driving. It looks like we are leaving for El Paso on Monday. So we have a few days to not be driving and hang out at Freja & Randall's house.

Las Vegas was weird and expensive. Adolfo was impressed by how much everything cost. We couldn't see more than the Strip and they didn't even have a fireworks show.

We were unable to go over the Hoover Dam on our way out because cars with trailers are prohibited. So we went farther south and crossed through Bullhead City. We didn't have to go through the switchbacks at the Hoover Dam, but we did have to cross some mountains and we almost didn't make it through the pass. The car started to over heat on one of the climbs and we had to pull over and sit for about 45 minutes while the car cooled. It was a good thing we bought a couple large bottles of water on our way out of Las Vegas.

Tonopah

2007-07-03T20:49:00.000-05:00

We crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains today and are now in the middle of the desert in Nevada. It's 8pm and we are exhausted!

The car did very well and Adolfo was a fantastic driver. There were several tense moments and we decided that going down hill at a 7% incline was much more scary than going up hill at 20 mph with RV's coming up fast behind us.

Yosemite was beautiful and we stopped and took pictures along the way. Hopefully, you will be able to see them soon on Adolfo's site.

We're 200 miles from Las Vegas, so we should be able to get there in good time tomorrow.

I'm a little concerned that Adolfo is going to have "US Culture" overload - Las Vegas on the 4th of July. The Yard Sale was the first of the (most recent) US Culture lessons. (You can see his reaction on his site.) He was pretty much blown away that you could take all your junk and lay it out in front of your house and people of all races and economic levels would come by and pay you to hall away your junk! (He contends that in Mexico if you lay your junk out in front of your house, people will drive by and point and laugh at you.)

Las Vegas on the 4th may just put him over the edge. It will definitely be an architectural event!

Got it!

2007-07-02T14:46:00.000-05:00

We leave tomorrow. The passport arrived at 11:30 this morning. I don't know why.

Stuck

2007-07-01T13:29:00.000-05:00

We are still waiting. Today was supposed to be the day of departure, but the passport is not here yet.

Yesterday, we moved out of the apartment and into Adolfo's brother's apartment. We also mailed 13 boxes to Guadalajara. Today we will pack the car, so that if this passport ever arrives, we will be ready to go.

No Passport

2007-06-26T19:55:00.000-05:00

I've been on hold with the state department for the last 30 minutes.

Someday I'll look back on this and fondly recall how I was so stressed out, and how it's all so much better now. That day is not today.

Nostalgia

2007-06-22T11:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I was walking to the subway and I noticed the plums have started dropping from the neighborhood trees. I immediately had a flash of remembering what was happening last year this time.

Last year, the plums ripened while we were in Guadalajara for the first time. We left for Guadalajara on the 1st of July, just like this year. When we came back, 2 weeks later, the plums were just past their prime. I did manage to scrape together a bowl to have with some pancakes. However, I thought to myself, next year I'll have to remember to make some plum freezer jam in the first weeks of July.

Well, no plum freezer jam this year. I'll have to content myself with the knowledge that the mangoes will be ripe when we get to Guadalajara and the avocados will be following along shortly thereafter. Maybe Mapau will let me steal some fruit from her neighborhood trees. I already know she has access to an avocado tree.

10 more days

2007-06-20T17:29:00.000-05:00

I was finally able to talk to the State Department yesterday and was informed that my passport will arrive next Tuesday. This gives me just enough time to apply for a visa at the Mexican Consulate.

It will be great if I can get this visa. If not, I can enter the country on a tourist visa, but it may complicate things with my car. Since the car is legally mine, it will also be tied to my immigration status. If I need to leave the country, the car needs to leave the country also. At least, that's the rumor on the tourist visa status. I'm going to apply for a visa that is a bit more serious than a tourist visa (FM-T or FM-3) and will only need to be renewed annually and I can leave the country without my car.

The packing is going well. I'm making lots of phone calls to cancel various services and subscriptions. The yard sale is on Sunday and we have dinners with friends scheduled for
Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights!

2007-06-18T18:06:00.000-05:00

I think I called the State Department about 10 times today. Still no passport. I cannot get an actual person on the phone. After making my way through the telephone recording (about 5 minutes) I am told that all the agents are busy and they cannot answer my call, thank you, and good-bye.

On Friday, however, I was able to talk to an actual person. And, I was able to find out the my passport is in..... New Hampshire! great.

Also, today I woke up with a sore throat. I'm tired of being here (packing) and I'm ready to leave now. But, I have this week off from work and I'm here packing and getting all the errands done. After this, there is one more week of work and we are out the door.

To the Other Side

2007-06-12T16:15:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure if I can accurately describe the title of the Blog, but I can try to give some context to the creation. Since we first decided to try to make this move I've been recalling my previous international moving and living experience. It was brief and I was much more naive. However, I also don't have a lot of the e-mails from that time. I can only now, exactly 10 years later, recall some of the major emotions and moments. I've lost all the nuance. I had a few other moments of recollection and I also have been told by many friends and colleagues: You should write about this experience so you can reflect upon it later. I'm terrible about keeping a journal and I decided this is probably a better way to write mass e-mails.

In addition, I attended a conference workshop in which the presenters discussed the U-curve or W-curve. The emotional ups and downs the expat, or study abroad student, or other long-term traveler is told they will experience. The presenters were de-bunking the theory. One of their points was that the studies have mostly been based on people's recollection of their emotional well-being. A sort of, well I felt pretty good, and then I felt kind of bad and sad and now I'm feeling better than ever! But, blogging, like journal writing, can record some (almost) honest emotional reactions in the moment.

For example, right now I'm a little freaked out about my passport.

Also, I wanted to write about this because I'm moving closer to 'home'. I feel like I'm moving farther away, because I'll be on the other side of the border, but I'm actually moving into the same time zone as my parents (and most of my family). What a strange feeling!

Right now, the other side is Guadalajara, but I'm also hoping that at some point the other side becomes the US.

Tying things together

2007-06-09T15:39:00.000-05:00

I'm posting Adolfo's Flickr site to this blog so people can see the photos and read the stories (more or less) together.

2007-06-08T17:49:00.001-05:00

So, lucky me, I'm caught up in the waiting game for my passport to be renewed. I'm starting to get ansy and finally sent off an electronic request for the State Department to let me know where I stand. I was nervous about sending it out to be renewed before it even left my hands, but I did it as soon as we returned from our last trip to Mexico, and now the delays in passport processing times are national news. Fantastic!

2007-06-04T20:05:00.000-05:00

I am back from the conference and all went very well. I was able to talk to about six different directors of offices in Guadalajara. I hope to grow these relationships and be able to use them to gain a foothold in my field in there. I gave out about 3/4 of the business cards. And, people seemed to like them. I received many positive reactions when I handed my card to people and I hope this also means I will be memorable.

API and I worked on packing over the weekend and had previously survived the family invasion and the pillaging of furniture and other household items. We purchased a trailer for the car and I am working on getting the registration worked out so we have titles for the car and the trailer. We hashed out a driving plan and are still discussing with his mother if El Paso is the right place to cross.

Now I need to book a hotel in Vegas, send follow up e-mails to the people I met with last week and tag the kitchen with tape on the things that go into the yard sale.

2007-04-28T01:15:00.000-05:00

I got the business cards and they look really nice. I've already given out many and had a moment today of wondering if I had enough to take with me to Minneapolis. The backs of the cards have photos we took in Mexico from API's Flickr site.

We have changed directions on the moving project and now are pursuing a more reasonable plan of selling off all the stuff we can and taking the rest in my car (along with a car top carrier, which we hope to buy used). I think we can do this and save a ton of money.

Next, I need to finish updating the resume in English.

Finally!

2007-04-19T22:13:00.000-05:00

Today I met with the boss and gave her my resignation letter.

To complicate things, API e-mailed me to tell me he met with his bosses and they gave him a $7000 raise. crap. Now what? Well we are going out to dinner to celebrate an eventful day.

I feel incredibly good to get this off my chest and out in the open. API and I will have to discuss the repercussions of what the raise means and if it will affect our departure date.

Next step: get the international movers to come over and give us a quote.