Yes, I Work Too

Today I spent the day with Michel and Roberto testing Roberto's real-time data acquisition and analysis program. To test Roberto's program we headed to a place where we were sure to see large increases in sulfur dioxide. This beautiful place (that's sarcasm folks) is called Tula. Below is a picture of the power plant that we were measuring.
Here is Roberto and Michel preparing the instrument. By the way, Roberto is the man because his program worked really well. Michel and I were both very impressed.
To be honest, I can't believe that people are allowed to live as close as they do to the power plant we measured today. In addition to the power plant, there is also an oil refinery, several cement factories, and some mines. I have not seen any data supporting my hypothesis but I am almost 100% sure that the health of those living in Tula is effected by this industrial area. It was nasty . . . but its a good place for measurements.

Another Bound to Happen

I was finally asked today, after almost 4 months, to not bring Endo to work with me. Apparently there is some old school biologist in a completely different part of the building who saw me with Endo and decided to write a letter to the director of El Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera saying that having dogs in the building presented a sanitary issue for the work that he conducts in his labs. I later found out from co-workers that this biologist is very old school and doesn't like foreigners nor women. I don't think his complaint about Endo, who never goes to the side of the building Mr. Old School works on, causing a sanitary issue was the real issue at hand. So now the question is whether I fight this battle or just leave Endo at home while I am at work? I am leaning towards the later at the moment.

The one good thing about leaving Endo home while I am at work is that I would then take the metro to work every day. I have been feeling extremely guilty about driving to work and the only reason I drive to work is so that Endo can come with me. The question that begs to be answered is whether I should feel more guilty about driving to work or more guilty about living my dog in an apartment for 6-8 hrs a day? I think Mr. Old School just solved my internal conflict.

On another note, I did my second mtn bike race of the season on Sunday. Once again I definitely enjoyed myself. I kind of dig the training once a week and racing with no goals program. The big guys were out for this race though as it was a national calendar race. I must say that these guys fly. Here is a picture just before my start. Don't worry, I didn't race with the men's Experta group, they started a few minutes in front of us.

Lunar Eclipse

Every full moon, Wolfgang and Ivan spend a few nights on the roof of El Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera (CCA) taking measurements of the moon with their FTIR spectrometer from la casita. A while back while grocery shopping, I found a bottle of wine from Spain called Casa Luna, which I promptly bought for Wolfgang and Ivan. They saved the bottle of wine and shared it will Sarai, Carolina, and me on Wednesday night while we watched the lunar eclipse. For those of you that were not fortunate enough to see it, it was darn pretty cool. Below is the best image I could capture with my cheap digital camera.

You Know Your Life Is Good When . . .

you look forward to the workweek as a chance to recover from the weekends. My weekends tend to be packed with many activities from going out until 4am to rock climbing to going to museums. I look forward to the workweek when I can actually sleep for 8 hours straight. I's say my life is pretty darn good.

This coming weekend is the second mountain bike race for the Mexico City league. It also happens to be the second race in Mexico's national league too. I rode the course on Sunday and it is REALLY fun. So, for any of my mountain biking friends out there, if you'd like to get in an early season race, book your ticket NOW. Not only is the course fun but also the weather should be in the mid-70's!!!
On another note, on Sunday I decided to give Endo a bath. The hair on his ears is always full of dirt and stuff and I decided that while I was giving him a bath I would trim the hair around his ears. Well, being the terrible pet owner that I am, I accidentally cut his actual ear. He spent an hour in the vet emergency room getting stitches. I felt SO bad. He is fully recovered now and I will pay the groomers $15 from now on to bath him.

Super

The word "super" is used a lot here in Mexico. Super bien, super rico, super divertido, etc. Today I was at the gas station, which all have super full service, and the attendant asked me what type of dog Endo was by saying, "is he a super Cocker?" I had a good laugh. There are not very many Springer Spaniels here but there are a lot of Cocker Spaniels, hence the super Cocker.

These are cockers . . .
And this is a SUPER cocker . . .
Super full service means that if you ask, the gas attendants will check everything possible on your car while they fill your tank. Today I found out that if something is not working, they'll fix it on the spot. You pay the attendant a tip for their service. My coolant hoses were clogged so two attendants flushed the system right then and there this mroning. I tipped them 100 pesos ($10), which I think must have been a lot because they gave me a bunch of free candies. Unlike in the States, you watch everything the attendants are doing and they verify every step with you. I learned more about how a car works today than ever before in my life.

Bound to Happen

Many of you probably assume that the police force throughout Mexico is not exactly the most honest police force in world. However, I have been in Mexico City for about 5 months now and have yet to have an encounter with the Mexican police. I was beginning to wonder what everyone was complaining about. Until today . . .

I was driving home from work and offered to give my friend Vander a ride to the metro thinking it would be faster for him than walking. As we are driving there is a police car behind me and I start telling Vander that I am afraid of the police because I have US plates and they are bound to try to pull me over for something. Then I also mention that Tuesday just miiiiiiight be the day that I am not supposed to be driving in Mexico City because of my license plate number. Before I could finish that sentence, the police car behind us pulls me over. There were two policemen in the car, an older guy who was clearly the jefe and a young policeman who is the only one that got out of the car to talk to me. I played dumb gringa saying I didn't know I wasn't allowed to drive my car on Tuesdays and that I couldn't understand everything he was saying. So Vander took over at that point. After Vander explained that I am a doctora gringa working at UNAM, which seems to carry a lot of weight in this town, and live in the neighborhood, the policeman told Vander that they would follow me to my house and decide what they wanted to do. Before Vander started talking to him, the policeman was threatening to obey the law and impound my car for 24 hrs and fine me $100+. Once I got home, the young policeman approached us and he had apparently explained to his jefe my situation and they had decided to let me off. Some words were exchanged with Vander who then pulled me aside and said you need to give them 300 pesos (about $30). Vander returned to the policeman and slipped him the 300 pesos. The police went on their way and Vander lost a good hour in his already 2-hour commute to his house. I felt pretty bad for Vander but I was also so glad he was there to help me. I am not sure which policeman will end up with the bribe money, but yes bribing works here and you definitely can't be the one to initiate it, the police have to. And yes, I will obey the law and not drive on Tuesdays anymore. My first encounter with the police, although I was breaking the law, supported the general assumption that the police force in Mexico is less than honest.

How Do I Do This Again?

Lets see, shoes, helmet, gloves, chamois, jersey, water bottles, number, safety pins. Am I forgetting something? You guessed it, I raced my mtn bike today. Mexico City has its own mountain bike league and today was the first race in the series. Yesterday, I took Endo to Los Dinamos to pre-ride the course. I promptly emailed my cycling friend Lenny when I got home to tell him how the course was. This is what I told him, "We are going to die!" The course was a 6km loop with some very steep climbing on what we would consider fire roads, then some sweet single track, AND then the descent. These Mexicans are crazy. Here is a picture of one portion of the descent.
Lenny wanted to get to the race early so we arrived two hours before the race began. I wasn't sure what to do with myself as I am used to showing up to races Erin Huck and Megan style, which is just barely making it to the starting line in time with our numbers pinned. Here I am refusing to chamois up prior to an hour before the race. However I did prepare for the race in Miguel fashion by going out dancing until 2am the night before my race. Gotta love life in Mexico.
I decided to race the Feminil Experta category. They started us (all 2 of us) with the Elite (Pro) woman (all 3 of them). The 3 Elite women were not only fit but could descend extremely well and after the first climb I never saw them again except when the leader lapped me on the crazy descent. Anyway, I battled it out with the other Experta woman, Mariely, and she ended up taking the win. I would gain a ton of time on her on the climb and she would gain it all back on the descent. But a friend was made during the battle. Mariely and I are going to start riding together as she lives in my neighborhood. Here we are on the podium.
I have to say that racing today was SO MUCH fun. The descent was crazy but with each lap I rode more of it and had a grin across my face every time I made it down a difficult part. I am looking forward to the rest of the season.

Good Friends

I hang out a lot with many of my Mexican friends, but their pictures never seem to make it onto my blog. Perhaps its because I don't take their pictures. I finally got a couple pictures from other people.

Here is a picture of Hector, Me, and Daniel (not shown is Barbara who is taking the photo). The 3 of them have become by best friends in Mexico City and I am so glad that I met them. They are extremely good at including me in everything and in anything. Thanks Rodrigo for introducing us to each other!
A while back I had a dinner party and Daniel took a movie of Hector and me dancing, as well as Barbara and Frank dancing. I need to work on my moves but I love the dancing culture here.

Here I am with some other friends at a cantina in the Center. We happened to be there when the US was playing Mexico in soccer. It was pretty funny because, as you can imagine, the crowd was very one sided.

The excitement and the let down

On Sundays and holidays, the UNAM campus is closed off to cars. This past Monday was Constitution Day so UNAM was closed. I decided I would put on my Rio Grande/Sports Garage kit, pull out my cross bike (which has been sitting in the storage room since I arrived here in November), and give the UNAM roads a try. I was so very excited to spin the legs out.
On the way to UNAM I put my cross bike to work and road through the cobbled streets of Coyoacan.
It was a beautiful day (which means a bit windy so that the pollution is blown out of the city) and you could see the volcanoes in the distance. This is a photo of the UNAM Olympic stadium with the campus behind it and a volcano in the distance.
Although I did end up riding for 1.5 hrs, it just was not satisfying. On my way to and from UNAM I had to worry about traffic. At UNAM I had to worry about the random gates closed throughout the campus, soccer balls flying in the street, dogs chasing me, and other cyclists deciding to turn around right in front of me. I nearly t-boned one hard and it would have been a BAD crash. But thanks to my many years on the bike I was able to react quickly and missed him by inches. Needless to say the ride ended up being more frustrating than satisfying and my cross bike will probably stay in the storage room for a while. I definitely miss the 4-5 hour mountain loop rides in Colorado where I can ride with my mind in the clouds!

Xochimilco

After the Dolores Olmedo museum we headed to Xochimilco. I was actually there last weekend too, but I forgot my camera and therefore didn't post any pictures. Xochimilco has somehow maintained to keep the pre-Hispanic canals that used to run throughout Mexico City. The canals are now just a large tourist attraction and for about $12/hr you can rent a boat. As you explore the canals everything from flowers, food, drinks, to songs by Mariachi bands can be purchased. It is a fun and relaxing thing to do on the weekends.
Tracy, Max, and Maddie enjoying the experience.

El Museo de Dolores Olmedo Patiño

A long time family friend, Maddie Oatman, and two of her friends, Tracy (a Middlebury friend) and Max (a Boulder High friend), have been staying with me this weekend. On Sunday we headed to the Dolores Olmedo museum, which is housed in the beautiful 16th century hacienda, La Noria. In addition to the gorgeous 6,000 square meters the hacienda encompasses, the hacienda has over 600 pre-Hispanic artifacts, 120+ pieces by Diego Rivera, and 20+ pieces by Frida Kahlo.
Max, Tracy, and Maddie at the entrance to Dolores Olemdo's living quarters.
The grounds of the hacienda are also home to many geese, peacocks,
and Xoloitzcuintles (native Mexican dogs). The hairless dogs remind me a lot of the hyenas in The Lion King.

My Endos

On Saturday I went for a 2 hour mountain bike ride at Ajusco. I went over the handles bars while exploring some new trails so I decided to take a picture of my two Endos.