Happenings

I officially have a mailbox at my house and I even received mail from my health insurance company. I am not sure how long it takes for mail to get to me from the US but if anyone ever wants to send me a letter the old fashion way, my address is
Megan Melamed
Bruselas 82 #2
del Carmen, Coyoacan
04100 D.F. México
México
As I was driving through the crazy streets of Mexico City a couple days ago, I heard a thumb, thumb, thumb, thumb from one of my tires. I immediately stopped and was happy to note that my tire was not flat but there was a huge bolt, with its washer still attached, in my tire. I drove home since there was no air escaping. In the morning I drove to the Vulcanizadora to have them fix my tire. Ten minutes and $3.50 later I was back on the road. Some things in Mexico City are very expensive; labor is not one of them.
Spring is in the air in Mexico City. The trees are budding their new bright green leaves and flowers are blooming. Everyday, Endo and I enjoy the nice spring weather at the UNAM campus (read this article from the NY Times about the campus). Behind Endo is the Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera, which is where I work. Endo gets to roam the campus and the building leash free. He has become very popular at the center and although people claim they come into my office to say hi to me everyday, I think they are really there to see Endo and are just being nice to me.

Rocking Climbing at Los Dimanos

On Saturday I went rock climbing at Los Dinamos with Wolfgang and Abraham. I am not much of a rock climber but I will use any excuse to get out and enjoy the outdoors. The route we did was definitely above my limits and I did fall once, luckily Abraham had the rope rather taught and I fell maybe a foot. Below is a photo of Wolfgang going up the route.

Lights Out

The electricity went out last night in Coyoacan after a pretty wild thunderstorm. In the darkness, I headed over Federico and Anna's house to eat dinner. The streets were very dark and a little spooky. But Endo and I made it to our destination and back home again just fine with the help of a head lamp.

The Long Awaited Update

Sorry for the lack of posts. The only excuse I have is every time I want to post to the blog either my camera is not near me or the cord for downloading is not near by. I know, lame. Here is an update of what has been going on in my life this past week.

I went to the market today to buy some fixing's for a dinner party I am having tomorrow night. Highlights of the shopping experience are:
1) A kilo of fresh picked strawberries for $3
2) A lot of very sweet, fresh blackberries (they were expensive, $6, but they are REALLY good)
3) 1lb of fresh made tortillas for $0.50 along with fresh salsas for $0.80
4) The yumminess of fresh food.
I took the photo of my compras after the market because many of the stands in the market say, "no photos please." I guess I am not doing too well on advancing my photography skills : (On Sunday my friend Victor took me to Bosque de Chapultepec, which is the "lungs of the city." Imagine central park, only with a lot more people around. The view below is of Polanco from Chapultepec. Polanco is a wealthier neighborhood in Mexico City where most of the banks are located. There are not very many high rises in Mexico City because as Victor, the civil engineer who builds bridges throughout the city said, the ground is like gelatin and it shakes. You can also see the park has tons of trees and several lakes.
One of the buildings in the park is El Castillo de Chapultepec. It was built in 1785 by Viceroy Bernardo de Gávlvez on top of a hillside in the park as a military college. It ended up being the last defense for the Mexicans when the US invaded Mexico City in 1847. Shortly there after, it became Maximilian's official residence. When Benito Juárez overthrew Maximilian, the castle became the presidential residence. Now it is open to the public and houses a museum. Here I am standing in front of the castle.
My beautiful Bass Harbour, Maine photo that cost me a lot in shipping and importation tax now has a home. I think it looks rather AWESOME on the brick wall.
Finally, after a week of messing around with it, my RO system still does not work. I guess the pressure into the system from the apartment's water system is not enough. I am working on figuring out what to do. Keep your fingers crossed that sooner, rather than later, I will not have to purchase plastic bottles of water anymore!

A New Found Respect

I have gained a new found respect for photographers, especially those in journalism. Let me explain why. When my friends Luke and Nichole came to visit Mexico City, I noticed that they were taking photos of buildings, streets, people, etc. that I no longer deemed photo worthy in my head. These where images that I see on a daily basis that had lost their WOW factor to me. It had nothing to do with Luke and Nichole's excellent eye for beautiful images. This is were the beginning of my new found respect for photographers started. I began to wonder how, everyday, a photographer can see more or less the same scenery and still have the ability to see the images that make the viewer of their photos say "WOW". How, do photographers not become immune to the images of the stories they are covering? How do they continue to keep the perspective that a photo of yet another young African boy holding a machine gun will shock their audience? I wonder these questions because for me, I have become immune to the daily images in Mexico that would make my blog readers say "WOW". When I realized this, I began to search out photos I would like to take for my blog that would be of more interest to my viewers. However, I found that the images that I would love to post would require me taking photos of people and mainly of people in a state much less fortunate than mine. I have a moral problem with taking these people's photo, especially without their permission. It feels like I am violating them if I do so. But what I am supposed to say to them when I ask them if I can take their photo? "Would you mind if I take your photo for my blog so my friends in the US can see how unfortunate you are?" I can't do it, it doesn't work for me. That is the second part of my new found respect for photographers, their ability to connect with the people they are taking photos of and to make these people feel that they are not being violated. I guess this is why I am an atmospheric chemist and not a photographer. In any case, I did try to attempt to take a photo of someone, without their permission, and below is the result. Sorry blog readers, it is not that great of a photo, but in the future I am going to work on my photography skills and hopefully post better images.
A scene like this occurs multiple times throughout my day here. I see people manually hauling things across the city in handmade wheel barrows and bicycle contraptions like the one above. Sometimes I watch in amazement at the loads these guys will push up hills. It is pretty incredible.

While on the note of photographers, if you'd like to see an amazing documentary about a photographer, rent War Photographer. Its an excellent film about James Nachtwey that discusses some of the things I mentioned above.

Congratulations Edgar

Edgar successfully defended his Ph.D. today. He did part of his Ph.D. work in Germany with Wolfgang and I guess the German tradition is to make the new doctor a ridiculous hat. Here is Edgar showing off his hat that Woflgang and Ivan made him. Edgar's in-laws threw a very nice comida at their house after the defense. We were wined and dined with amazing food and beverages.
congratulations

Impuestos and The Trash Black Market

After much consideration, I decided to make my home in Mexico really nice with beautiful handcrafted furniture that I will take back with me to the US. This means that when I move back to the US, I will have to hire movers. There is one piece of art work that I left back in the states when I drove down here because it was just too big to fit in my laundry basket, which was holding all of my other pieces of art. Once I decide that I would be hiring movers to move back to the US, I decided that I really wanted to have this one piece of art work with me while in Mexico. While home over Christmas, I sent the beautiful photo to myself. The packaging and the shipping cost me an arm and a leg but I decided to go ahead and send it anyway. . . Well FedEx called me yesterday to inform me that the Mexican government somehow thought that they needed to charge me a $40 importation tax (impuesto=tax) on this piece of art work. What? I crossed the border with a car full of things that should have been charged an importation tax and I didn't have to pay a cent. Now I get charge a $40 importation tax on something that shouldn't have an importation tax. Oh well, I guess it is the way things go in Mexico. Here is a lovely picture of my Bass Harbor, Maine photo with the expensive FedEx box it came in.
On another note. Yesterday was the first day that I was actually in charge of taking out my own trash (in the past, the construction workers took care of it while I was at work). This is how trash pick up works here. Trash pick up is a public service. The trucks drive through the neighborhoods with no specific schedule. The only way you know whether or not to bring your trash out into the street is if you hear the trash guys ringing their specific bell. At the sound of the the bell, the doors of every house open and out emerges your neighbors, that you never see otherwise, to gather on the corner with all of their trash (I never thought the only time the neighbors would get together would be over trash). Then I watched in amazement at what the trash guys do. I was told that there is no system for recycling here in Mexico, but this appears to be false. The trash guys tear open every single trash bag with their bare hands and separate out glass, cardboard, paper, and anything that looks like it might be able to be resold. Imagine that this was your job, to go through everyone elses trash all day long, everyday. Yuck! My guess is that if the trash guys know someone that runs a recycling business, they can bring the glass, cardboard, and paper to them. The money they receive probably goes directly to the trash guys. The trash guys probably also have friends that buy the resellable stuff from them and then turn it around and sell it in the markets. I guess you could call it the black market for trash.

Too Much To Do, No Time To Blog

Between buying lots of stuff (hot cereal, dried currants, non-chemical containing all purpose cleaner, spices, etc. just the normal things that are hard to find in Mexico City) and then getting everything packed to return to Mexico, I just haven't had much time on my hands to blog. I also haven't had anything interesting to blog about either.

I got back to Mexico City on Thursday night. My very nice friends Ivan and Carolina where there to greet me, scared shitless Endo after flying, and my 3 bags. Since then, I've been doing household projects. Today, I spent the entire day installing a potable water system. Perhaps this might be interesting to some, so I thought I would blog about it.I have a major issue with buying bottled water, especially in the US where potable water is ubiquitous. It just doesn't make sense to use loads of petroleum to not only manufacture all the plastic bottles, but then to transport these bottles full of a free commodity for miles upon miles? Come on people, buy a reusable water bottle and fill it up at any of the many potable water taps in the US. Now here in Mexico it is a little more complicated, but I am hoping with my new water purification system I will not have to buy any bottled water when I am home in the city.

. . . First step though is getting the system to work correctly. I am not exactly there yet (Notice the bucket under the sink. Yup, I've got a leak). I may have to hire a plumber to clean up my work. I'll keep you posted.