Adventures in Mexico

And on the eighth day, God created high speed internet






my new departmento and its charming view

After spending several days waiting at my apartment for an unreliable operation called Cablevision--which promised me a handsome cable TV and high speed internet package, promptly charged me and never delivered services--I have signed on to Telmex high speed internet. Because I did the whole transaction over the phone in Spanish, I got serveral key details about my account wrong,making the initialization process daunting. Despite these small linguistic hurdles, I am now connected to the beautiful world wide web and will be able to post more of my daily adventures and missteps from the land of calamity and quesadillas, El D.F.!

3 things I love about the Latin world and working in close proximity with the Spanish language:
*that there are countless landmarks of Virgin Mary's; therefore many street directions I receive go like this "Walk 50 meters and turn left/right at the virgin."
*that I am referred to as "Mees" (short for maestra), "The mees" or "my mees" by students, fellow teachers, custodial staff, taxi drivers, baristas and fruit delivery people.
*that the word phlegm is a cognate, making decongestant shopping easy.

3 things I dis-love about Mexico
*that the Superama grocery store near my house belches out a steady stream of margarine smelling exhaust from their transfatty resplendent bakery department.
*that the only reasonable clothing options for purchase are made out of mysterious fibers (regurgitated cat hair?) that rips the second it strains slightly against the contours of the human form.
*that my washcloth is filthy, I mean grey and filthy, after simply washing my face...and no, I don't work in a coal mine.