I do love the digital camera. Makes me world fun, I tell you. I just wish I could capture the smells, the way the air tastes, the sounds, the true colours, the bugs, the people… I was very careful not too take too many people pictures. Until I know the local customs, I don’t want to step on any toes.
Anyways. The first folder is just John and I fooling around before I left. You’ll notice no tears, as we are so stoic. Well, he is. I just won’t allow pictures of me crying, if I can help it.
The second folder is Mexico pictures, obviously. They start off with my first night in my new room, not really unpacked, just suitcases open so I can root for the important rooms. The big window opens south, the little one west. The ceiling fan normally compensates for lack on air conditioner. So does the fact that the temperature crashes after dark. The first pic of me is my first night; you cannot see how bloodshot my eyes were after 36 hours of awakeness, thankfully. The second is night two, at least someone happier. Bathroom, then night 3. The light is bad so you can’t see my new faint tan. You all know my love of decorating, plus it now feels more like MY space. The pool, which is freezing due to those cold nights. The guy is Xavier, a 23 year old French business student. He’s very nice. No ideas, please; his girlfriend is going to school in Toluca.
I wish I could reorder these pictures, but I cannot, so bear with me. One thing that you spot right away is that this world is so unfinished. Like these stairs. They go literally nowhere. I mean, staircase, then ceiling. The ‘roof’ of that building is concrete, with rebar sticking out. (there are pictures later in the roll.) The kitchen with Che Guevera is right off the pool. There is currently one room in that building, but the cement roof promises of more, eventually. Che, though, drives me crazy. I mean, he’s EVERYWHERE. IN EVERY COUNTRY. Arrg. I mean, sure, he helped Castro win his revolution, but then he went to Bolivia, did some stupid things and was shot to death. Whee.
Anyways. That’s our backyard, the student part, by the pool. Several pics later is the roof pic I mentioned above. That’s what my window looks on to. Hallway with local phone, like a real phone booth though. Telemex owns everything telephonic here. It’s rather incredible.
The end of the hallway outside my room. And the stairs. I love the stairs. Black metal, delicate looking, very sturdy. Very pretty, though would be a bitch drunk.
Our Kitchen. With our very own pool table. Xavier’s been beating me pretty badly, but he’s not great either, so we play very friendly rules. It passes the time. The pool table converts to a real table with some plywood. The sitting area in this main room is where I type now, with Marilyn looking over my shoulder.
Duct tape = Canadian magic. John, thanks for the end roll, it’s fixed a broken lipstick cap AND the loose side pocket.
Stairs again, then my room as viewed from the main floor, la planta baja. My door is right beside the towel. It’s very dry here and things dry even more quickly that in Calgary, because the heat helps.
This afternoon, Saturday, I went for a long walk, in the opposite direction of the school and downtown. (I walked south.) I took pictures of every single different type of flower, as they are so pretty and I need to rub in the fact that I am in the perpetual spring while you are in –13. (Look, you do what you gotta do to keep yourself sane, I’ll do what I need to do.) My house from the outside, 21 is the student’s door. The house across the street is such a pretty colour, I love it. That, spray painted on the wall, is seen from between the two houses. The following are street shots. I live on the corner of Sn Luis Potisi and Puebla. The roads here are unreal. The go from nice, “modern” (read north American) roads to, well, that.
The house with the fake dog is actually LIME green, I’ll have to back during the day to get Courtney a picture. If you could give it neon orange trim, it would be her dream house.
A Christmas shrine. The decorations are still up in parts of town, looking increasingly bleached.
I just love how colourful some houses are. While this may be considered, as the brochure said, ‘a pleasant suburb south of downtown’, sure not like the suburbs back home I loath. So colourful and NO NONE NADA architectural controls, including in some case, structural soundness. And so many buildings unfinished. In some cases, they look positively abandoned. I’ve even seen totally empty lots, growing scrubby grass.
I love the two cars, parked together, facing opposite directions. It seems to say it all. The whole insanity towards driving, the contradictory world here.
It seems I live in a pottery neighbourhood. At least one house a block, it seems, produces pottery. (Raises questions of gifts and shipping…) And the market-y area south of here seems to be primarily selling pottery. Lots of Jesus, dishes and ornamentation.
The Solidarided was imprinted a lot on one street, I do not know why.
The burn garbage in the streets. It stinks. So does all the animal feces. You can see, after a picture of a seemingly abandoned frame of a house, that something is burning a ways away.
There’s a better picture of the lime green house. With the school in the background, the tallest thing around.
A water pump(?) in front of a scruffy house. Again the juxtaposition. The roads really have to be seen to so them justice. They are soooo terrible off the main roads.
When trying to talk to these two boys, I forget the word for ‘to look’ and could not ask them if I could watch. I tried, but… I did ask for permission to photograph them. They really looked like they were having fun. They wrapped string around the bottom of the top, and the throw it. They spin really well; except for the time he missed and threw it behind him. Such a nice change to see kids playing. I early watched a young boy show off to his parents his ‘talent’ at paper airplanes. I cheered him on. He was pretty bad, but was having fun. Later I saw a boy with a top, running to join the other two. Some of you are aware of my feelings towards the pointlessness of playground zones in Calgary, as you almost NEVER see kids in them. (Too much playstation, maybe?) Here is so different. Seems like a good thing. Very much more a community thing here. There’s a broken TV in one of the rooms, Xavier took it downstairs a few hours ago. Laura, the house owner, said she will give it to her neighbour, who’s son is some sort of selling wheeler and dealer. Otherwise, the broken TV would have gone into the street, where it would be claimed by someone else.
Tried to go onto campus, but it’s a Saturday and all is closed after sometimes in the day. Security gates at all entrances, though I’ve never been stopped. I think I probably look like what I am, a confused international student.
Another ubiquitous phone.
I love this roof, it was on a big lot across the school along with another one. I walked to the very end to discover it is abandoned.
Burrs I picked up on my walk. Note to self: use tweezers, as fingers may have no problem with some of them, that’s not true for all of them. Ow. Just south of the school, on my way home. The next bunch are pictures of my three blocks to home. A few years the local government changed all the street numbers, thus ‘#23, before 11’ . There are rangy dogs everywhere. Mostly listless, just lying there. Kinda scares me. What with my whole childhood dog trauma, plus being attacked by one is Costa Rica… But so far no problems. Well, other then almost stepping in their shit.
You can see where the addition on my house is. That’s a lousy picture of the moon, but damnit, it’s sideways.
My room, mostly unpacked. Living half out of a suitcase, but it’s just the random stuff living in there. My roommate’s bed is still home of my keyboard and plastic bag of dirty clothes. We have a Renault print.
The unfinished house of the second student building, and the main house.
The last few pictures are of the school. Yes, internet access outside.
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I also went to the Zocalo today, the centre of the city. Saw the Palacio de Cortes *spit*, the government buildings, the artisan market, many many stores, three churches on a square, including on with the most amazing 5(?) story ceiling, with frescos decorating the walls. Saw a wedding take place in one church, and will have to go to English mass one Sunday in another. Had another shopping spree for the basics. Discovered the ‘joy’ of las rutas, the local buses, like the 400s at home, but old with bad suspension, a propensity to speed, harrowing multi-vehicle passing into on coming traffic. Apparently they have a very low accident rate. Still feels kinda ‘vaya con dio’ every time you give the man 4 pesos. I wonder why there aren’t many chiropractors around? With buses like that…
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I can get skim milk, we drink good tasting filtered water (not as good as N Calgary, better than south. Have I said that before?), and will eat, I am sure, lots of eggs and rice and things pan friable. Lunch today: avocado, rice, small pork chop pan fried with onion and green peppers, pieces of cheese, and a bread product. (He has brown wonder bread, and I had a tortilla.) He drank baby cervasas, and I had Coca-cola light. (Bliss in a bottle!) Dinner will be fried rice, basically leftover rice, green pepper, onions, pork chops and anything else we have. Today so beats the eggs and tortillas of the last few days.
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I can swear that all entries will not be this long. It’s just that I’m killing time now. I mean, Xavier is here and we talk and cook and play pool and explored the city a bit, but there’s only so much togetherness time possible. And only so much Spanish grammar books I want to look at. And only so many postcards to write, Tropico and Spider Solitaire to play. Can’t swim, can only wander so long. And so I write. In journal, here, postcards. What’s that Coupland line about humans not being designed for free time? Could not agree more. I’m looking forwards to the other’s arriving, for school to start. I’ve never been good at or enjoyed holding patterns. And this feels like it. Maybe it should not, but it does.
The other arriving students: 21 male from France, 20 girl from France, my probable roommate, 2x25 American females, the girl in the pool house, I think in a solo room, but maybe not. Or maybe there are two girls in the pool house. At least one was here last semester and claimed that room. American, I think.
Anyways. That’s it for me tonight. Sooner or later Xavier will leave his room and we will cook and play a few more rounds of pool and retire. I think I shall read. I started, almost by accident, the book Nathan gave me for my *blush* 19th bday, ‘The Cider House Rules’. I never read it, I think in part because the movie previews made it look anti-abortionist. But then I started reading, and the first 70odd pages vanished almost instantly. Plus, I got to finish it before John gets here, as this is one of those ‘keeper’ books and if it goes home with John, than it will not be left/sold here as I have too much stuff to bring home. I babble, forgive me. I’m a bit bored and lonely. Tomorrow, I think I will go to the Palicio Cortes, so I can hiss at the evil evil man and enjoy the spectacular solid architecture of his palaca/fortress. Buenos noches, mis amigos.
