MEXICO February 15, 2010: Dia Uno y Dos en Mexico

Pretty tame compared to other travels

Hola —

Arrived in Mexico City at about midnight on Saturday (February 13) and was glad we had decided to spend that night at the airport, especially since when we left the airport hotel the next morning to get to Coyoacan the taxi driver had a hell of a time finding our place.

We got to La Casita del Patio Verde in Coyoacan around 1 pm on Sunday and were greeted by Marta who is about 4’5″.. I feel like a giant! La Casita del Patio Verde has only two rooms. It’s a wonderful house with cottage. The house has one room that is currently rented to a filmmaker from NY and then there is the casita where we are staying. The main house and casita are separated by a fantastic jardin.. with patio areas, benches, sculptures, and well-tended growth. Patio Verde is located on a small narrow street that only goes about two blocks.

After settling in to our very gracious casita, furnished with Mexican artifacts, a wood burning fireplace, and tall ceilings, we walked through Coyoacan to San Angel where Diego Rivera lived. We visited his studio which was quite wonderful, and looked as if he might walk in the door at any moment. We followed this with great margaritas at the San Angel Inn (and decided to make dinner reservations for later that night.) Both San Angel and Coyoacan are old neighborhoods that have been restored and attract an upscale artsy crowd and residents.

En route we passed through the major squares of Coyoacan and San Angel, and dozens of colorful old churches.

Today, Monday, I began my intensive one week (4 hours per day) Spanish classes, and Mike resumed his teaching at the university (UAM) at Xochimilco — so we went our separate ways immediately after desayuno at the casita.

The taxi ride to la escuela took about one hour although it was probably only about 8 miles. Traffic was unbelievable and I felt like my life was at risk for at least 30 of the 60 minutes with the taxi weaving in and out of lanes and stopping short about once every five minutes.
I arrived at the school and met my instructor Maria Louisa. Just as I requested, it’s just me and her.. and four hours of chatting. Today we left the school, took the metro bus for about 20 minutes to UNAM and talked outside the bibloteca for about three hours. At first she suggested we’d chat inside the library, and when I questioned the fact that libraries are supposed to be quiet she shrugged. Anyway, we wound up in the outside courtyard because we couldn’t find any free tables inside the library.

UNAM is huge — sort of like ASU, but buildings are very far apart. Students were everywhere. I gather most commute from family homes. UNAM is the more upscale university; Mike is at UAM which has a majority of first generation college students and many commute from barrios two hours away from UAM. Both universities have good reputations and are highly competitive.

My lessons are interesting and I’m hoping they create a miracle … When I spent a week in Guatemala 18 months ago, I spent five hours a day with an instructor and it was pretty boring. Pretty much conjugating verbs and reading passages from a book and answering questions. This time I wanted to talk… so today we talked politics – American politics — what works in the US and what doesn’t, why the US won’t deal with the immigrantion crisis to legalize long term residents.. health care, etc. Problem was that I’ve got a lot to say about all of this, but have second grade language skills to keep the conversation going.

Anyway, following my class I came back to Coyoacan and then walked to the Frida Kahlo house about a mile away only to find that it’s closed on Mondays, so I came back to the casita and did some work..

Tonight we ate in the main square at a simple Italian/Mexican restaurant. .. Now we are in the casita about to watch “Hurt Locker” which I brought with me in DVD.. Our room has a large scale, flat screen TV and DVD player!

Adios. Mexico is a lot more predictable than Turkey, so my ramblings won’t be anywhere near as interesting. It’s also a country I’ve been to many times, so it’s less exotic… but fun and interesting nonetheless.

Adios. Hasta luego.
Fern