One Word, BURRRRRRRR

On the 26th, my family and I headed to Winter Park to get in a day of skiing. Upon waking up, we debated long and hard whether or not to go at all since the forecast was calling for a high of 5˚ and some wind. We finally loaded up the car and drove to Winter Park where we decide that perhaps going out to breakfast was a better idea than skiing when the car thermometer said it was 1˚ out. After a very nice breakfast, The Melameds were on the verge of heading back home when we remembered who we are, The Tough Melameds. We bundled up and headed out for the day. The skiing was fun, the company was great, but it was freaking cold out Mr. Bigglesworth.
My brother and dad getting all bundled up.
My mom always has a smile even when its 3˚ out.
Me with my silver bullet helmet. It sure does keep my head warm.
Since we decided to ski, we were able to meet up with my cousins Molly Rose (not pictured because she was working at the Ski-Depot in Winter Park) and Theresa. The Melameds and Theresa went out for some yummy pizza at Hernando's pizza. Then we headed back to the front range. I am glad I got in one good day of skiing despite the cold temps.

Santa Came Through!!!!

I got a new camera for Christmas. Here are the first three pictures I took with my camera today while skate skiing at Eldora. It was SO beautiful out. I forgot how much I like winter and the sports that go with the season.
Me!! Yes, I am pretending that I am still training for bike racing by wearing my old team jacket.
Here I am getting ready to do a couple loops of Meadows and Phoebe.
Phoebe Snow trail.

Christmas Time in Mexico City

I seemed to have lost my camera, or rather donated it to some lucky Mexican when it most likely fell out of my bag in the center of Coyoacán. So any photos that I post between now and when Santa brings me a new camera will not be my own : (
Here is a picture from the newspaper El Universal of the center of Mexico City yesterday. This picture includes the world's largest ice skating ring, a sledding area, snowman making using man-made snow and a HUGE Christmas tree. All events are free to the public. Since the majority of Mexicans have never seen snow, the center is packed with people curious about how those of us fortunate enough to actually have white Christmases celebrate the season.

Thanksgiving, Birthday, and Christmas Party!!!!

Since most of my friends have never had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner here in Mexico City, I decided that I would cook one for them. Then I figured why not celebrate my birthday too. Oh and how I do love Christmas, why not celebrate that too? Thus came about the Thanksgiving, Birthday, and Christmas Party.
Last night 14 of sat down to a wonderful Thanksgiving meal of turkey, stuffing, yams, peas, salad, rolls, cranberry sauce, and 3 kinds of pie (apple/pear, pecan, and pumpkin) topped with whipped cream and/or vanilla ice cream.
Then we decorated a Christmas tree while listening to the best Christmas album EVER, John Denver and The Muppets A Christmas Together.
With the tree decorated and Christmas music playing, it was time to exchange gifts, white elephant style though. There was a ton of laughing and some people walked away with great presents while others, not so great. I ended up with a book about Kama Sutra. The book was the highlight of the night for a while.
Then to celebrate my birthday we broke open a pinata. Some people can sure get a little crazy with the stick while trying to hit the pinata. Needless to say it was an AWESOME night and I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends here. I wish I could do this every year!

Fellow Blogger Evelyn

Fellow blogger Evelyn came to Mexico City to celebrate Thanksgiving at Maggie and Antonio's. I don't have any pictures of the great meal we ate on Saturday evening, but I assure you, it was yummy. Its also been nice to see Evelyn. We talked a lot about the transition from living in Boulder for over 7 years to moving to a large city, Mexico City in my case and New York City in Evelyn's case.

Teotihuacan

This past weekend, la banda (i.e. Daniel, Daniela, Hector, Tania, Roberto, Barby, and I) went to recharge ourselves by climbing the Pyramid of the Sun (the pyramid in the background) at Teotihuacan.
Teotihuacan is a pretty amazing place and only an hour from my house. Here is a view of the Pyramid of the Sun from the Pyramid of the Moon.
After eating a very yuumy meal at Mi Ranchito (see new my new profile picture), we went to Daniel's uncle's house in San Martín de las Pirámides. Last weekend was the town's fair and they act out the Moors and Christians fighting, amongst other activities of course.

More Day of the Dead and Maia

Before I headed to Arizona for the conference, I went to see all of the Day of the Dead exhibits at UNAM.
This was by far the best exhibit. The students took advantage a the "mirror of water" to build this tribute to Octavio Paz, the honorary dead guy for this years Day of the Dead at UNAM.
I don't typically spend much time on the UNAM campus at night but the library sure is beautiful at night time.
Last night I had the great opportunity to babysit Maia, my riding partner Lenny's daughter. I was her first babysitter and we got a long really well. I think I will be invited over again soon.

DISCCRS IV

Last week I attended an interdisciplinary symposium on climate change in Mesa, Arizona at the Saguero Lake Ranch. It was nice to get out of the city for a bit and run through the desert. The symposium was very motivating and it was fun to be surrounded by 33 other young motivated individuals.
Here is the group pic.

Day of the Dead

Last night Ivan, Carolina, Wolfgang and I went to see the Day of the Dead exhibit en the Zocalo. It was super cool and below are many photos.

Clausurado Por Violar La Ley

If a business here violates the law and is shut down either for a short period of time or permanently, the government makes sure everyone knows by plastering signs all over the building. I think it is pretty funny.

Parres to Tepoztlan

This past Sunday Lenny and I decided that having a lot of friends that mtn bike is never a bad thing. So, we headed out for our first group ride. It is a point to point ride starting in Parres, a small mountain time just on the outskirts of Mexico City, to Tepoztlan, a lush beautiful town in a valley south of Mexico City. Miguel, the head of the Mexico City mountain bike league, invited Lenny and I. His email said that we would meet at 8:30am and he would not wait for more than 30 minutes before leaving. Being the on time gringos we are, Lenny and I arrived just before 8:30 at Parres, changed into our biking gear, and headed to the meeting point . . . but no one from our group was there. And they weren't there at 9am either. Finally, at 9:30am they show up. We should have know this would happen because in Mexico being on time means being an hour late. Once all 20 of us got organized and I could no longer feel my feet nor fingers and was shivering like crazy from waiting for over an hour in 40 degree fog, we started riding. The first part of the ride was through an ecological reserve. We couldn't exactly see where we were going because of the fog, but it was still beautiful. We rode through some serious black mud.Lenny.
Me.
The second part of the ride was through some beautiful fields and
forests.

The last part was a 20 km descent on an EXTREMELY rocky road. My forearms are hurting from breaking. I don't have any pictures of the end of the ride unfortunately. The Tepoztlan valley is just beautiful. The total distance of the ride was 47 km but it took us probably 5 hours to ride it. Just think of doing a large group ride in the US and then adding in the Mexican cultural factor.

During the ride Lenny and I learned that there was no way to get back to Parres using public transportation. We had already been gone for over 8 hours and poor Endo was home alone, stuck in my apartment. We hired a taxi and paid him 400 pesos (about $32) to drive us an hour back to Parres (I guess we paid him way too much money, but I thought it was well worth it). We grabbed a quick sandwich to hold us over and headed home. Things we learned: never believe that people will actually show up on time, group rides take a lot of time, there is some great mtn biking that we have yet to explore, I need to visit Tepoztlan not in my chamois, and Endo doesn't like it when he is left home alone for 10 hours. Overall, a fun adventure and it was so nice to spend a day not in the city.

Campeón Metropolitano

A couple weekends ago was the final race in the Mexico City metropolitan mtn bike league. The course was by far the most difficult and the decent was insane. Nonetheless I ended up getting second place for the day and winning the league for my category. I must admit, the racing is not nearly the level of Colorado mtn biking, but its pretty darn cool to say that I am champion of the Mexico City metropolitan mtn bike league. Thanks to Sue for taking the photos below. I believe at some point I might even get a video of pre- and post-race interview she did. I'll post the interviews when I get them.
For second place I won a medal and a very pretty bouquet of flowers and
1,000 pesos, about $100!!!
I won this really cool jersey for winning the league.

VOTE!!!

To all my blog readers, VOTE. I just sent in my write-in ballot today because my official ballot never arrived. My philosophy is that if you don't vote, you have no right to complain about anything related to politics, which is everything. I will also let all my fellow blog readers know that I endorse Barack Obama (and my endorsement should have a VERY LARGE influence on my blog readers!) If there is one apparent executive decision the candidates have already made, its choosing their VP. For someone who strongly believes that climate change is man made and has been an advocate in the senate to support policies related to climate change, it is unthinkable to pick a running mate that doesn't believe that climate change in man made. Climate change is not just an environmental issue, its a national security issue, its an immigration issue, its an energy issue, its an education issue, and its a human rights issue. I am sorry McCain, but when you address "My friends," I know you are no longer speaking to me. My friend would not have picked a VP that does not believe in my friend's core values.

Playing International Monopoly

Way back in August when the world was in a different economic situation, I blogged about how the dollar kept dropping in value to the Mexican peso. I believe at the time it was 9.97 pesos to the dollar. Well, since the economic fall out, I have become rich! A few days ago, the exchange rate was almost 15 pesos to the dollar! The exchange rate has settled a little bit and today its 12 something pesos to the dollar. The ups and downs of playing international monopoly (or the US stock market).

Vamos a Votar Por Obama

Makin' Tamales

This past Saturday, it was all about makin' tamales. We started the project at 10am buying all the necessary ingredients at the market. The next couple hours were spent braising chicken and pork, making two types of mole (green and poblano), and mixing the masa (cornmeal and lard).
Here is Hector workin' the 3.5 lbs of lard. You have to get the lard to a certain consistency before adding the cornmeal.
Daniel was at the stove the entire morning braising the meat, whippin' up the moles, and making atole.
Barby and Daniela testing the masa. The masa was divided into two part, one for sweet tamales and one for salted tamales.The next step was stuffing the dried corn husk with the masa and what ever else you wanted to add, i.e. meet, mole, peppers and cheese, chocolate chips, dried fruit, carmel, etc.. Tania and I learning the tricks of the trade.
Preparing the pot to steam the tamales.
Ofelia and Armando testing to see if the tamales are done after they had been steaming over a charcoal fire for more than 3 hours.
Finally at 9:30 pm the tamales were ready for us to enjoy and hmm they were good.

Indian Summer

I have been spending my evenings hanging out on my roof deck because the weather in Mexico City has been beautiful the past few days. I believe the rainy season has come to an end and fall is in the air. Its chilly in the morning, about 50˚, but warms up nicely to just around 70˚ during the day. The sky is cloudless and blue, minus the pollution haze that is.
But I say cheers to the sun returning. It sure puts me in a good mood to see the sun. I guess I am a Colorado girl at heart and require many days of sun a year to function well.

CHUPA CABRAS!!!

Hector, Barby, Daniel, and I hit up Chupa Cabras for some yummy tacos on Saturday night. I can't believe it took me almost 8 months to try one of these tacos, they are so yummy!!

Happenings

Life around here is pretty mundane these days. I have just been trying to write a journal article about my research and research jobs for next year. Sorry, but there is not much to blog between these two things. Here are a couple things that have been going on. If there is one thing I hate doing, its cleaning my bikes. Well, my cycling partner, Lenny, and I discovered that for 15 pesos (about a $1.50) you can get your bike washed after mountain biking. Yipeeeee!!! No more cleaning my mountain bike.
These large moths for some reason like the entry way to my apartment. I actually find them pretty cool as long as they are not flying.
Its was Barby's birthday on the 11th and we celebrated it with flan and some sort of lemon cake on the 12th.

And that is about it. Wish me luck on the writing and the job search. I need it!

Driving Restrictions

When I first arrived in Mexico City, I quickly learned about the "no hay circulación" law by getting pulled over by the police and paying my first bride (notice the use of "first" bribe, I paid the police off again recently). Since the last number on my license plate is an 8, I can't drive on Tuesdays. I could get my car "verified", which means an emissions test, but only cars less than 8 years old are allowed to be verified. My very clean running 1992 Subaru wagon is therefore unverifiable even though is passes the Colorado emissions test with no problems. So I was left with only one option, not to drive on Tuesdays. This is not so bad I thought. I take the metro anyway to work and very rarely drove on Tuesdays anyway. Then, in August Mexico City began "no hay circulación sabatino", which means the second Saturday of every month I am not allowed to drive my car. Even with all the "no hay circulación" rules, the Mexico City air pollution was not being reduced. Therefore, a new regulation began on September 1st that states, "any car with plates from a different country or from any Mexican state other than the DF and Mexico cannot circulate in Mexico City from 5am to 11am Monday through Friday." Currently, I am waiting for the clock to turn 11am so that I can go run some errands.

Puebla and Chiles en Nogada

Last weekend (I know, I have been lazy with the blogging lately)
Carolina, Wolfgang, Ivan, Endo, and I
went to Puebla to
eat chiles en nogadas. Mexico's Independence day is the 15th of September and the whole country is decorated in green, white, and red. Chiles en nogada is a dish that is only served during this time of year because pomegranates are in season and ALSO the chile is green, the sauce is white, and the pomegranates are red. How festive!