Friday, April 25

My Own Personal Carpenter

I am fortunate enough to know this rather talented guy. Not only is he capable of making me smile on a daily basis, but it also turns out that he is rather good at making furniture. Today, I received my first shipment from my carpenter, 3 bedside tables. They are not varnished yet but these things are very well made. Push in the drawers and they pop open. They weigh a ton and are super solid. We are not talking about Target furniture here. I was impressed.
In the next couple of weeks I will get a 4th bedside table, a bookcase, a console, and a TV stand. All handmade by Vander.

Playing Anthropologist

On Tuesday I went on an adventure to Chapultepec Park to find a very specific book at the National Anthropology Museum. You see, about a month ago Vander went to visit his uncle in a remote pueblo in the state of Veracruz. While there he bought me these hard to find handmade Aztec stamps.

Vander had mentioned that he once saw a book at the National Anthropology Museum containing definitions of all the Aztec symbols and figures. On Tuesday morning I got on the metro with the mission of finding the book for him. I was pleasantly surprised to find Chapultepec Park empty on a week day morning and I couldn't help but notice how beautiful the entrance to the park is.
I walked across the park to the National Anthropology Museum. This is the largest museum in Latin America. It would take days to get through the entire museum, which is divided up into 21 different rooms that each describe either a different time period or a different culture of Mexico. The museum is a must see for any visitor in Mexico City.
I found one book while at the museum that contained some of the Aztec symbols and figures but I didn't see the book that Vander was talking about. Although my adventure didn't exactly end up as I expected, I must say that visiting Chapultepec Park on a weekday was well worth the trip.

Sunday, April 20

I am still a winner if . . .

1. I trained for 1.5 hours in the past 6 weeks? (It also happened that during those 1.5 hours I was suffering from some stomach problems.)
2. I refuse to put my chamois on more than 30 minutes before the race and decide instead to take a photo of an essential part of every bike race, port-o-potties!?
3. I get to the start line and there are 6 elite women (i.e. pro women) and one experta woman (me) ?
3. Since I am the only one in my category, I stop during the race to take photos of the terrain and myself?
4. I smile for the photographers on the course?
5. I am the only one standing on the podium and I have a huge grin, as if I won the Olympics or something?
Well, I think I am still a winner! I am taking the Mexico City league experta category this year, watch out!

On another note, I have been needing to get my knives sharpened for a while now. I had heard of this guy who rides his bike through the streets blowing a whistle and if you can catch him, he will sharpen your knives. Well, there are so many different whistles, calls, shouts, etc. from people selling stuff in the streets that I was never able to find the whistle of the knife sharpener guy (that is his official title, at least in my book). But yesterday on my way to the grocery store I found him. Check out how he sharpens my knives! How cool is that?
My knives are extremely sharp now. All for $3.00.

Friday, April 18

A Work Adventure

A German colleague, Hendrik, has been visiting our group at UNAM for the past week. He developed an instrument in Germany for our group here. The goal of the instrument is to remotely take images of volcanic and power plant plumes that are color coded to the concentration of SO2 within the plume. Its a very handy measurement to have because we can be kilometers from the plume and figure out the concentrations within the plume. Henrik and I decided to test the instrument by going to Paso de Cortez to measure SO2 emissions from the active volcano Popocatépetl (5,636 m or 18,500 ft). But as luck would have it, it was cloudy and we couldn't see the volcanic plume from Popo. Here is Henrik with his instrument and Popo in the background.
Upon arriving to the refuge where we take our measurements from, we met a very nice man named Miguel. Miguel is retired and a widower. Since he has no commitments, he spends the majority of his time at the refuge greeting climbers and climbing himself. Although you can't climb Popo right now because it is active, on the other side of the pass is the non-active Iztaccíhuatl (5,230m or 17,159ft) and climbers stay at the refuge on Paso de Cortez at 4,000m (13,123 ft) before summitting Izta. Here is a picture of Miguel and I with Izta in the background.
Miguel convinced Henrik and I to stay the night at the refuge with him since the probability of it being clear in the morning was much higher. Henrik and I did not come prepared to stay the night but Miguel provided us with everything we possibly could need, plus more. We were treated to a wonderful meal of soup, salad, pasta, and wine in addition to some incredible hot chocolate. We got to hear plenty of fascinating stories from Miguel and see numerous photos from his time on the pass. Miguel woke up us early the following morning to inform us that there were clouds and measurements were probably not a possibility. Needless to say, we had bad luck making measurements, but we had great luck with our adventure.

Endo also got to join in on the fun at Paso de Cortez. After being in the city for months on end, I think he was glad to be in the mountains again.

My New Amante

When Amante Coffee opened in Boulder, CO a few years back I was so excited. Amante was pretty much where I could be found when I was writing my PhD dissertation. I spent many hours there with either a lovely latte or a nice glass if wine writing away. I was definitely sad to leave Boulder and the Amante scene when I came to Mexico. BUT, about a month ago, a new coffee shop opened around the corner from my house in Coyoacan. Its called Society Signature Coffees. Although their coffee standard is not nearly as high as Amante's, the ambiance is very similar to that of Amante. Society just might end up being my new office when I begin to write journal articles.

Tuesday, April 8

The Simpsons vs. Baywatch

Today I found this great article (its in Spanish though) about the TV channel Televen in Venezuela. The Venezuelan government kindly suggested that Televen should take The Simpsons off the air because the show infringes on the national norm and contains messages that are not appropriate for children and adolescents. Televen obeyed the governments request and replaced The Simpsons with Baywatch, a show that has yet to receive scrutiny from the government. WHAT?! Baywatch is better than The Simpsons? Come on Chávez, lets get real. Chávez has also banned the use of words like "password" and "email" in the work place. Instead people must say "contraseña" and "correo eléctronico." Chávez feels the use of the English words in a Spanish speaking country is part of the USA's plan to take over the world. Just thought I would share some news that we receive here in Mexico that you may not receive in the USA.

Sunday, April 6

From all the emails . . .

I received about the lack of blog postings, I decided it was time to update my blog. Actually, I didn't receive one email from anyone about the lack of blog posts but I am hoping there are still a few of you out there that read my blog and in fact did wonder why I hadn't put a new post up in a while.

Well, I really don't have a reason for not putting up a new post in a while except that life has seemed busier lately than normal.

Below is a photo of the Mexico City Mouse Trap (at least that is what I call it). The large flag in the middle is very impressive. I took this today while heading to Home Depot. I wanted to buy a grill but Home Depot had a terrible selection.
Also, my friend Colleen visited me from Thursday March 27th to April 2nd. Here is a list of the things we did:
•Very nice dinner at Hacienda de los Morelos with Colleen's boyfriend Fadi and his friends Rodrigo and Irene
•Ate a very traditional Posole comida (i.e. lunch) with my friends Vander and Delibes
•Went to a breakfast to celebrate Suzzi's (Abraham's daughter) baptism
•Colleen got a taste of the Mexico City salsa scene at Mama Rumba
•We went for a nice walk at Los Dinamos, which was followed by a fresh trout feast for Colleen
Lots of long walks with Endo in Coyoacan

More posts to come this week. That I promise.