ending the first week

thanks everyone for your comments and interest in this blog. I hope you continue to visit often, and I will do my best to make regular and interesting posts. I will also do my best to respond to your queries :-)

Here I sit in an Internet Cafè in Zona Rosa in Mexico City. Sadly my laptop is having problems so I had to take it in for repair. I don`t have my camera with me, but will take and upload some pics asap as many of you have requested this. I will try to take pictures of various areas around and outside (as I make trips) the city so you can see how incredibly diverse this place is. I remember my first few trips to mexico I took a ton of pictures--snapping images left and right. Realizing I will be here nearly a year, I find myself much less inclined to take so many pictures. But I will try to spend some time (more likely on the weekends) to dedicate some time to picture taking.

This week was pretty busy with the Fulbright orientation. Over 70 scholars and students from the US met over a four day period with Mexican scholars and folks from the US Embassy. It was fun talking with the other grantees to hear about the activities they would be involved in during their stay. Some will study history and others will work with Mexican businesses. Some are artists (I met a classical guitarist, a photographer, and a few painters), some historians, political scientists, anthropologists, and a few archaeologists.

The Fulbright organizers really crammed this week with stuff. Several presentations were made on Mexican history, Mexico-US relations, and administrative stuff for the program. They also took us on a few tours through the city. They took is to the main zócalo, which is a huge square surrounded by federal government offices, a gigantic colonial cathedral, and the main temple of what used to be the well-known Aztec civilization Tenochtitlán. Perhaps some of you recently heard in the international news about an Aztec royalty found in Mexico city using radar technology. Well, that what in the zócalo area. There is so much history here, it is difficult to internalize it all. The clash of the indigenous and European traditions is obviously an essential theme. Moreover, it continues to be a very important focus in contemporary political and social sciences, throughout the country and in several other areas of Latin America.

In addition to the zócalo, we also visited a large art museum which houses several paintings done from the 17th to the 19th century. Most were of Christian icons, and were medieval (a la El Greco) style. I assume they were commissioned by wealthy Spanish, and were hung as status emblems. The musuem used to be offices for the Spanish elite. They were painted before "Mexico" came to be -- when it was Nueva España. Mexico officially became independent from Spain in 1821. It was interesting to see that these paintings contained virtually nothing to indicate they were painted in mexico -- no representations of the immediate surroundings here -- e.g., indigenous people, native foods, native traditions, etc.

The Fulbright folks also wined and dined us plenty. Or in my case, juiced and dined. We had some really tasty food, and visited restaurants I probably won`t be able to afford during the rest of my stay. There was also a cocktail party/social hour held at a home of one of the Embassy dignitaries. Regretfully, I was late to the hotel and missed the bus so I wasnt able to attend :( But I was happy to have some time to just chill for a while.

Hope everyone is well. I am on my way to the Mexico City Temple right now, and hope I don`t get lost on the Metro (subway) on the way.

drive to méxico

i know i have been promising for a while now to get this blog up and running. now that i am beginning to settle down and get accustomed to my new surroundings here in méxico city, i am going to try to make regular posts, and hope this blog will help me stay in touch with you dear family and friends. i hope you are able to visit and post comments often.

currently i am sitting in my modest apartment which is atop a pizzeria/italian restaurant and the home of a friend of a friend. the apartment is in colonia (or "colony", used to refer to areas or neighborhoods in cities throughout méxico) nápoles. it is a gorgeous area of the city. my apartment is across the street from a beautiful park (where live jazz/opera [Andrea Bocelli type music] was played today to a crowd of some 200 people) and only a few blocks from méxico's World Trade Center. i need to explore more around this area, and i think i'll start with some of the fantastic eateries i've seen. perhaps i should start with the pizzeria below -- i smell it every day :-)

a few of you have asked me about the drive here. for those who perhaps weren't aware, i made the decisions months ago, after finding out i'd be staying here for some 10-11 months to write/work on my dissertation, that i wouldn't fly to méxico city, but would drive (from az) instead. i knew that all the books and resources i would need to do my work would far exceed the airline's weight limit for baggage. moreover, i knew a car would come in handy if i wanted to get off the beaten path while in méxico.

before leaving, i was a little concerned that my truck (which at the time had traveled nearly 214,000 miles) might not make the journey. so i did all i could to make sure it would survive. i got a tune-up, replaced tires, flushed the radiator, and a friend of mine helped me fix the A/C (so I would survive).

i set out on my journey last friday, august 10th. and i had my route marked. i'd go through el paso and then austin where i would take a few days to see the city and visit a friend of mine, Wayne Holtzman (a school psychologist in Phoenix) who happened to be visiting family and friends in austin during my move. After Austin I would cross the border at Laredo/Nuevo Laredo...

can i just say now how proud i am of my little truck. it made the over 2,000 mile trip without incident, and it got 28-31 miles per gallon most of the way (yes, i calculated each time i filled the tank). all this with about 450 lbs. of cargo (including myself). so, can i get a shout out for my lil' toyota pickup (i think i hear a yap yap!).

anyway, friday night i arrived to el paso around 8 pm. i had been to this city last november for a conference and new that the university (UT El Paso) looked over the I-10 and Ciudad Juarez. i drove to the highest hill at UT El Paso, parked, and studied the night lights across the border and the Rio Grande (or Rio Bravo). For those of you who haven't been, this metropolitan border community is worth checking out. I think it is the largest international border community in the world, and is the most bilingual/bicultural place i've been too (and yes i have been to Quebec). while passing through i flipped through the radio stations. i think some were broadcasted from Juárez -- a huge variety of music, half or so were in Spanish, and some bilingual broadcasts. after dining at Chico's Tacos I crashed at the Motel 6 just off the Interstate.

Saturday morning, after eating (I shamefully admit) an egg and cheese biscuit, hash brown, and OJ from McDonalds, I was on the road for Austin. The drive from Phoenix to El Paso took around 7 hours, and I knew the way to Austin would be a few hours longer. A few hours out of El Paso, the scenery became gradually greener. After veering from the I-10 and getting on the 290, I passed through several small towns founded by German settlers. Quaint little towns. Frederiksberg was the largest among them, and had a really cool downtown. The 290 also passed through a number of large peach orchards, and the hometown of President L B Johnson -- Johnson City. I guess their ranch is now a museum. If I had more time, I would have liked to visit.

The last few miles into Austin, after counting 3 or 4 dead armadillos and seeing a number of other animals pummeled along the highway, the vegetation quickly got greener and greener. Being the from the valley of the sun, i am always in awe at lush vegetation. Upon arrival, i drove to my friend's parents' home, which is in a beautiful area 10 miles or so from downtown and UT Austin campus. these neighborhoods were really pretty. I found out later that Lance Armstrong lived around the corner, and that several celebrities call Austin (the live music capital) home.

The stay in Austin was great. It was nice to relax, walk around the campus, visit the UT Latin American studies library (which had an incredible amount of resources -- perhaps more than any Latin American library on Latin America), visit the LBJ museum and library, meet some of Wayne's friends, and dine at some tasty little restaurants near campus. while in austin i was also able to see a few the (man-made) lakes which are simply damned water along the Colorado River. A fun coincidence in Austin was running into an acquaintance from Mesa (Rosa). She was in town just visiting friends as well. We ran into each other at the single's ward, and since neither of us had plans, we hung out and ate together after church. That was fun :-)

On Tuesday morning it was time to head south. I was a little concerned at this point because my windshield wipers had stopped working and i saw on the news that a tropical storm was blowing in from the Gulf of Mexico, on its way across northern Mexico, and would probably pass through Wednesday afternoon. But I didn't want to get my wipers fixed in the US because I knew it would be cheaper in Mexico (yes, I am cheap). So I zoomed to the border through San Antonio and Laredo hoping the rain wouldn't fall. For those of you frequent border crossers, you know that getting into Mexico is much easier and takes much less time than coming back into the US. In fact, there was virtually no line to get in to Mexico. I showed the Mexican border office my Visa and Passport, crossed the Rio Bravo, and that was it -- pretty seamless. Within 45 seconds of entering Mexico, a young man and his friend yelled something at me, and one decided to jump into the back of my truck. I couldn't really make out what he was saying. But I stopped and asked him to bajarte (get down), and he quickly complied.

At this point, I had to turn in my Visa, exchange dollars for pesos, and buy car insurance. Conveniently, I was able to do all this at one location. However, it took me quite a while and the help of teenage boy (who I paid to come with me to orient myself) to find the place. It was kind of fun to do all the migration paperwork at this place. It began to settle in at this point that I am now the immigrant, and am able to count myself among the 3 percent of the world's population who currently lives outside their country of birth.

After Nuevo Laredo, I kept on moving through Monterrey (Mexico's 3rd largest city) and then Saltillo. My drive on Mexican highways was done part on toll roads (which I believe are privately owned) and part public roads. The quality of these roads varies along the way, but I would say that, on average, the toll roads are of better quality (i.e., less bumps, fewer potholes, smoother surfaces, and wider lanes). In total, I spent $40-50 on toll fees from the border to Mexico City -- less money than I had anticipated.

After spending Tuesday night at a chic motel (it was an "Auto Motel", meaning each room came with a garage) along the highway in Saltillo, I woke up asking the personnel where I could find a car electrician to fix my wipers. The worker pointed right next door -- how convenient! This mechanic was quick. He diagnosed and fixed the problem in about 30 minutes.

With my wipers working and the truck still running quite well, I was confident I could make it to Querétaro. This drive was quite pretty. I didn't know Joshua trees (interestingly enough were named by Mormon pioneers) could get so stinkin' tall. There must have been some that reached 40-50 feet in height. I included a pic i took along the highway of a small Joshua Tree forest.

Once in Querétaro, I decided I wanted to stay the night in their colonial downtown, where the streets are about 6 meters wide and the roads are made of brick and cobblestone. I found a great place right downtown. I was able to spend a few hours walking around the zócalo (main city plaza), see some of the cathedrals, get some food, and listen to some of the live music. I was surprised to see some many families with young children out and about hanging out downtown at 10 pm on a Wednesday night. Perhaps many of them were on vacation...

I knew the drive into Mexico City (often referred to as el DF, which stands for el Distrito Federal, or the Federal District) would be a challenge. I had been here twice previously (arriving by plane on both occasions) and knew traffic was unbelievably dense and the roads were nearly impossible. Most of the roads (excluding the avenues) are one-way and they curve. Coming from the Phoenix area where the streets are basically on a grid, I knew at some point I would get lost. What I didn't know is that it would happen within 15 minutes of entering the city. Soon after entering the city and paying the final toll, I was pulled over by a pair of federal cops. They were surprisingly (after the many stories I've heard about the corrupt Mexican police I think I expected them to bribe me or falsely accuse me for some invented infraction) kind and simply told me I couldn't drive on the main highway because I had a load in the back of my truck. So I had to take the side roads (ahhh!!!). Luckily, this main highway had a lateral roadway so I knew I was going along the main highway, which is the only way I knew to find la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM; México's federal university and the largest and supposedly the best university in Latin America). So I was fine until the lateral suddenly ended. Needless to say, I was completely lost. But at first I didn't mind so much. Driving in Mexico city, for me, is like playing a video game -- you have to be super aggressive, lanes are usually optional, you can't get too close to the cars around you, cutting in front of other seems to be expected, and the horn is used very frequently to communicate all sorts of things (I don't think I've learned the horn language yet -- and I'm sad to say that mine works only on occasions).

Anyway, after burning over 70 gallons of gas and driving through 3 US states and 8 Mexican states, I did finally make it UNAM to campus and made my appointment with Dr. Rolando Loving Díaz (my landlord and friend of Wayne's) just in time. the traffic frustrations didn't end there, however. After leaving the university I got extremely lost and it took me an hour and 40 minutes to drive some five miles. For those thinking of visiting me, don't worry -- I promise to only drive places where I am familiar with the routes. And the public transit here is quite good :-)

I am still settling in here in Col. Nápoles. Tomorrow morning I plan to paint and clean my apartment (which is on the corner of Pennsylvania and Georgia -- many of the streets in this neighborhood are named from US states). Then Tuesday through Saturday is the Fulbright orientation. That should be fun :-)

Sorry this entry is so long. I promise subsequent posts will be shorter...