Monster Chard!

Okay, still catching up on the past but I can’t help myself.

The monster chard is too bizarre to resist.

And if I want to stick with the garden theme at least marginally I damn well better post about the garden, right?

Upon my return from Mexico, I found some freaky things happening in the garden. The upstairs garden was almost completely dead and the downstairs garden had really run amok.

Mostly dead things upstairs. The poor little flowers in tiny pots didn’t stand a chance without water.

The miraculous thing is that the tomatoes upstairs actually were doing really well and I even had a few baby tomatoes! We’ll see if the vulnerable young things survive my month away in Boston….

So that’s upstairs. Downstairs was another story! The peas were half dead, but the plants that were toughing it out had an abundance of ripe delicious peas that I had the pleasure of eating. Yum!

The onions were also still surviving without any signs of distress.

We lost a few flowers but a few were hanging on. (god bless native plants, they are true survivors.)

The craziest things were the swiss chard and cilantro, both of which had grown freakishly tall. I think that the heat wave that hit the Bay caused them to bolt. The cilantro was clearly flowering, on its way to seed. One of the chard plants seemed to be doing the same thing:

See how it got so tall that now it’s tipping over? And see the little wispy things on the end? They seem to be an attempt at flowering, I think.

But you ain’t seen nothing yet. The other chard, which actually had overwintered from last fall, went really crazy! It grew like 10 feet or something, collapsed at some point, continued growing along a stool and up the wall and is sending out little tiny chard leaves.  Here’s a pic, looking down long the length of the main stalk.

WHAAAAA?

Plants are crazy. Especially when they turn into scary mutants.

See what happens if you leave your garden alone for a month?

Mexico City….after the fact

Okay, since writing about stuff that happened a long time ago isn’t much fun we’re going to rapidly accelerate the past few weeks so we can finally hit the present!

If memory serves me correctly I think we stopped off in Guanajuato, yes? Yes.

After that came Mexico City. Luckily by this point I had joined up with Alejandro and Diego, who were also headed that way. We boarded the bus, which thankfully had the volume turned down on the movies. Good choice!

When we arrived, I was supposed to stay with a friend of a friend but her phone number wasn’t working, so Alejandro kindly offered to host me, along with Diego, at his place for the night. We took the metro, which wasn’t nearly the big deal that people made it out to be, and finally arrived at his apartment. We met his family and went down to the street to eat delicious pozole, a stew with corn and in this case chicken. Wow was it fabulous and wow was I hungry so I ate a lot!

Then we watched a disappointing soccer match and stayed up late talking about our plans to make the world a different (and better!) place. Very cool to meet people with the same ideals, and exchange ideas.

In the morning Diego and I set off for downtown to a hostel for the next few days. Then we wandered over to the Diego Rivera Museum, Alameda, and Palacio de Bellas Artes. Fabulous! Especially the Palacio. But we couldn’t stay long because we had already booked seats for lucha libre, the masked Mexican wrestling. And boy was that worth it! Totally over the top and very engaging. I wish I’d had time to go to another match. Next time….

The next day we went to the ruins at Teotihuacan, which are astounding. The site is giant. We were there four hours and didn’t see everything. Climbing the pyramids was of course a highlight, as was the museum, with lots of great artifacts.

On our third day we went to the Templo Mayor in the morning, which is an archeological site right next to the zocalo. Amazing! Great museum too. Then off to see the Diego Rivera murals, very cool as well, and then we met up with Alejandro and his friend to visit the Frida Kahlo house and Anahuacalli, the museum Diego Rivera built to store his collection of pre-Columbian art. I liked Anahuacalli a lot…wish I had my digital camera to photograph the art. Will have to find a good coffee table book of the human figurines.

That night we met up with Alejandro’s girlfriend and the group of us wandered around a bit and ended up finally connecting with the friend of a friend, Miranda, who turned out to be a lot of fun! Too bad we had missed each other earlier, it would have been fun to spend more time with her! But alas that was my last night in Mexico.

In the morning, Diego, Alejandro and I wandered around yet another market (believe me they never get old!) and found a bar to sample pulque, a milky slightly alcholic drink made from cactus. Tasted a lot like chicha, the corn beer of Peru. At least it had the same sweet fermented flavor.

Then we had to say our goodbyes! Alejandro had to head home. We snapped one last picture together.

Diego and I set off one last time in search of CDs, found a few on our list, and I ate my last tacos in Mexico. Then I had to hit the road too. I almost cried when I said goodbye to Diego….it’s rare to make such a good friend in such a short amount of time.

I took the metro to the airport, and after some delays and flight juggling made it home to SFO in the wee hours of the morning.

Vamos al Pipila!

Okay, so now I’m home and the vacation is over but for what it’s worth I’ll try to fill in the last week and a half. I was too busy to write, I swear!

So after my return to Oaxaca and the rock festival, I went on to Guanajuato.

Guanajuato was wonderful! I met a group of Mexican students at the hostel where I was staying and spent several days with them wandering about the city, which is gorgeous. Guanajuato was one of the richest cities in Mexico during colonial days and beyond because of the silver and other mines in the area. On my first day, I tagged along with Alejandro, an architecture student from Mexico City. We went to visit one of the mines and then Christo Rey, the second largest statue of Jesus in the world.

Quite impressive, really. We took a one hour bus ride out there over very bumpy country roads, which kind of felt like a full body massage.

When we got back to Guanajuato we met up with the other students who were staying at our hostel, Diego, Tai, and Gabriel. We played a few rounds of dominos and ate cake to celebrate Alejandro’s 22nd birthday. After a bit we decided to go out on the town, first wandering down to a square with several live music groups blasting out traditional Mexican tunes. After dawdling around a bit we decided to go the Pipila, a monument high on a hill above town. They had all walked up there at least once but I hadn’t yet, so they agreed to make the trek for me.

The Pipila monument honors a miner of the same name who sacrificed his life in the first struggle for Mexican independence, which started in Guanajuato. The Spanish were stationed in the Alhondiga, a fortress, and the freedom fighters couldn’t get in at them. Some the Pipila tied a giant stone to his back as a shield and advanced on the doors of the fort, successfully lighting them on fire and clearing the way for the fighters to advance. He died in the effort and is now commemorated with this statue:

The walk up to the Pipila is a long uphill climb through tiny winding streets called callejones. Definitely got me breathing hard but was very worth the climb. You can see the whole city from up there, and at night it was especially beautiful. It made me jealous of my new friends, three of whom are applying to university in Guanajuato. I wish I could go back to school with them there! Also it was really fun hanging out with them…they were all very sweet and we just hung out together, playing cards, watching telenovelas in the hostel, and wandering around town.

One night we went out wandering and got a bit lost in the tunnels that run under the city. The tunnels allow cars to pass under the city and supposedly improve traffic above ground. We wandered around down there for quite a bit before finally popping up again on the edge of town, where we followed signs for….you guessed it, el Pipila. We didn’t actually climb up again this time. Instead we headed up the road a bit and ate some delicious (and spicy!) tacos from a street stand before wandering back into town.

Anyway, all in all Guanajuato was really fun and I really enjoyed meeting up with such a great group. We have plans for a reunion some day in Guanajuato………

Chapter 4: The attack of LettuceMan and Killer Chistes, or, How I Became Public Relations Manager of a Rock Band

Okay, sorry to have been a bit lazy with the posts but I’ve been really busy, I swear!

After my all night bus ride back to Oaxaca, I got in touch with Fidel about how to get to the rock festival in Huajuapan. He said that his band was going together and that there should be room for me to go with them. Fabulous!

When they arrived, they had five members of the band and their equipment squeezed into a Volkswagon Golf, which seemed to be even smaller than the ones in the states. So we put my backpack on the laps of the three guys in back, and I shared the front seat with the littlest guy, Fredy.

Now the whole situation was a bit funny, since they are all good friends and I only sort of know one of them. And of course I only sort of understood what they were saying since they talked pretty fast and with a lot of slang. But it seemed like it would be a fun adventure!

I thought I would just be catching a ride with them to Huajuapan and then we would go our separate ways, but as it turned out we spent the whole weekend together. They said that I could be their public relations manager, which would get me into the festival for free. Great! And the festival organizers were putting them up at this lovely little resort by a lake, so I joined them. Even better!

Anyway, to make a long story very short, I had an AMAZING time. Mostly I was pretty quiet, but by day 2 I was understanding most of the jokes and jumping into the conversation now and then. These boys are some of the nicest gentlemen I’ve ever met…very good manners, very polite, and of course very hilarious. Some of the best jokes were LettuceMan, which in the grand tradition of creative pronunciation must be said as ‘leh-too-see mahn’, a man who was born made of lettuce. And then there was Killer Chistes, aka Oscar, so called because he has a tendency to say something that ruins whatever joke is being told.

There’s lots more to say about the rock festival and all but there’s no time now!

Adventures in English

Two quick stories about funny language moments on the road:

–When I was in Chiapas I went on a tour to San Juan Chamula, see the previous post for details. The tour was in English, and our guide was a wonderful little guy named Manuel. At one point in the tour, we were sampling a local drink from a communal cup. Manuel looked at it before passing it around and said,¨Wait, there’s some ghwack.¨ Which made me giggle…what a great word, a cross between Wack and Guac. Perfect for describing a bit of crud. Until later in the tour he used the same word to explain how some candles are made. Turns out that ghwack = wax.

–When I was out for lunch with my friend Irene, she was trying to order a soda, known in English as Squirt. Unfortunately if you say it the way you would in English, no one will have any idea what you are ordering. You have to say ‘eh-sqwirrrrrr’ and give the r a good roll. Then the waiter will gladly bring your drink.

Mayan medicine, chickens in the church, and evolution

Hello all!

Wow, it’s been a big week. I arrived in San Cristobal de las Casas early Monday morning, slept a bit, and then set off to see the city. I’m glad I made it down here to Chiapas…very interesting place. San Cristobal reminds me a bit of Cusco, with the mountains all around and the narrow streets and indigenous women wearing their traditional trajes. There’s also a fair bit of tourism here, which means that you can drink green tea, get a traditional thai massage, go to yoga class, and even eat falafel. I didn’t partake of those things, but their presence indicates there are a number of us foreigners running about.

I did take in a few documentaries about the Zapatista movement, since I wanted to learn a bit more. (The Zapatistas are a group of revolutionaries here in Chiapas, fighting for indigenous rights.) UItimately they were both sort of depressing…if you have any interest in the whole thing let me know, I would love to talk about it more.

The big highlight for me was the museum of Mayan medicine. There was info about the different types of healers within traditional Mayan culture, and the cures that they practice. This includes chants and prayers, herbs, visits to certain sites in nature, and passing eggs or chickens or soda over the body to draw out evil spirits. Very interesting stuff. The museum also featured a short video about birthing and midwifes which was especially fascinating. I’ve always wondered how people manage to have babies out in the campo.

On Tuesday I took a tour of two local villages. The definite highlight of the first village, San Juan Chamula, was the church. It’s a big Catholic-looking church, and inside there are dozens of statuettes of different saint, each carefully dressed and kept in a special case. But the church has no priest and no services–the villages drove the priest away years ago. Now the church is open 24 hours for people to come in and pray and do healing ceremonies. The floor is spread with pine needles, there are flowers everywhere, and hundreds of candles. Sure enough, while we were there several people were in the middle of healing ceremonies, just like I had learned about at the museum. And yes, we did see a woman passing a live chicken over another woman. So the old traditions are still very much alive.

The other good thing about San Cristobal has been staying in a hostel, since I’ve met many very lovely people, both among the staff and visitors. I spent a few days with Irene, a woman from Hong Kong who is traveling for six months. Luckily she had a digital camera so I’m attaching a few photos here. I also have been hanging out with Rachel, a woman from Australia. Today we went to the Canon del Sumidero, a beatiful jungle canyon with a river at the bottom, where we took a two hour boat ride. We saw lots of beautiful birds and even a crocodile!

The hostel seems to be run entirely by young men in the 20s or even younger. This would not be my top choice, because it means a few things fall by the wayside. But it does make for some interesting conversation. I particularly like Alexi and his brother Darwin. They look almost exactly alike, but Darwin is always singing wherever he goes so it’s easy to tell them apart.

Okay, I think that’s the essentials. Tonight I’m back on the bus to Oaxaca. Wish me luck!

Oh, the pictures below are from San Juan Chamula, and from a hike we took in a nearby bioreserve. You can see me, Irene, and a nice French couple we met on our tour.

 

 

rainy day

Well, I find myself back at the internet cafe, due to a rainy day. So much for my plans of spending my last day in Oaxaca photographing the graffiti. It’s actually really funny, now that it’s so rainy you can really see how many tourists are here because we are the only ones dumb enough to be wandering around in the rain. Not dumb exactly, just the only ones who don’t have a cozy home to hole up in.

Other news of the day:

Since I had to pack up for my bus ride tonight, I discovered that everything I’ve purchased fits in my backpack so far. Yay! The crafts here are amazing and are definitely leaving a big dent in my wallet and bulges in my pack.

I visited an amazing textile museum! If you ever find yourself in Oaxaca, you must go. There is also a nice library, where I think I will while away a few more rainy hours this afternoon, reading about the textiles of Chiapas. The exhibit they have up right now is fascinating. It shows how textiles from around the world feature very similar geometric designs. Some of the pieces are so elaborate….I couldn’t believe that women in China would spend weeks (at least) creating incredibly fine embroidery on baby carriers. All the textiles on display were so beautiful, and for the most part they were items for everyday use. Too bad we seem to have lost that aesthetic.

Argh! I think I just got a mosquito bite while sitting here! I’ve tried to be diligent about wearing bug repellent all the time, but I guess today I got lazy. Which means certain doom. Bugs love me. I’m a bit nervous to go to the jungle in Chiapas…I’m thinking about visiting some ruins there that would probably necesitate a bug repellent bath before heading out.

Last night in Oaxaca, sort of

Hello all! I´m returning to the blog after a long hiatus. And there´s not even a good excuse for not writing, I was working part time all spring so there was ample opportunity. Actually I even took some photos of this year´s garden with the goal of posting them, but we can see how far that got. Which is too bad because the garden was off to a marvelous start! My peas had done especially well.

The poor garden is probably dead by now because I´ve been in Mexico for a little more than a week! Woo hoo! The opportunity to take some time off from work presented itself, and so here I am. I´ve decided that updating the blog probably makes more sense than sending out mass emails, so here goes. I wish I could post photos, but I have an old school film camera with me instead of my digital. Sorry!

Anyway, Oaxaca! What an amazing and interesting place! I spent the first week here with my friend Emily, who I studied abroad with in Peru. That was super fun, getting to travel with her again. Her Spanish is awesome so that helps, too.

But now she´s gone and I´m on my own…which means figuring out a new travel rhythm. So far that has meant getting up late and meandering around the city, running the necessary errands, and trying to stay cheerful. One of the guys who works at the hotel where I´m staying asked me if I was alright, because he thought I looked sad or tired. I told him that´s just how I look! He then said that maybe he should be my boyfriend for a day and we could go for  a walk, wouldn´t that cheer me up? I politely declined but it did put a smile on my face!

The good news is that even aimless wandering here usually ends up in finding something good. There´s a huge park with fountains and lots of benches, so I went there yesterday to people watch. It happened to be market day and I ate the most delicious tacos that I´ve ever had. Wow. Then it started to rain a bit so that put an end to the people watching, but at least the tacos were worth it.

And on several occasions I´ve run into wedding processions, marching bands, and dance performances sprinkled throughout the city, so that keeps things lively. Last night I heard a rowdy brass band, and when I looked down the street there were in fact several brass bands and a huge group of people marching along. I followed them to a plaza where they all stopped to play and dance. Apparently they were students who are about to graduate, so they were having a big party. Fun!

Then there are the markets, which never fail to fascinate me. Today I strolled through a market with really beautiful leather work and cowboy hats. I´m tempted to get a hat, but think it would be a bit annoying to travel with since it won´t pack well.

There´s also a surprisingly big arts and music scene. I had heard that Oaxaca was an artsy place but I´m still impressed with how much is going on. The most fun part was discovering a small theater that plays independent stuff for free. Emily and I saw a reel of really bizarre shorts there, and made friends with one of the employees, a hip young guy named Fidel. We had the good fortune of going out for drinks with him, which was really fun. I´m hoping to go a music festival next week where his band is playing, which means I will probably pass back through Oaxaca for another night.

In the meantime, I´m headed to Chiapas. I leave tomorrow night on an all-night bus. Woo hoo! I´ll arrive in San Cristobal de las Casas, which is supposed to be really beautiful and also has lots of interesting art. I´ll hang out there a bit and then hopefully go to the ruins at Palenque. I´m hoping to check into a youth hostel, both to save money and to have access to a kitchen…that would make life easier.

Well, that´s the very condensed version of the news around here! Oh, except that I heard from Citizen Schools that in the fall I´ll be working at a school in Oakland. Great! I can stay in the East Bay, which is exactly what I wanted.

Okay, over and out, will try to post again soon….

Beach Weekend

Yo yo yo!

It’s been awhile. Happy 2008, world. Here’s praying for a good year.

I had a lovely weekend! After working too many weekends already this year it was spectacular. So, pictures first. Just in case anyone needed more evidence that California is a beautiful place to live. And that the sunshine here makes for really amazing colors.

This was an amazing beach near Pescadero. The rocks fascinated me. See below.

And some stunning flowers. Love the colors.

Nature really blows my mind.

24

My birthday was Monday.

Woo!

And a good birthday it was, too. Had a pleasant day at work, got dinner with a friend, listened to a loud Jewish mother tell embarrassing stories about her son. All in all a good time.

Much better than last year’s birthday. Thank goodness.

So now I’m 24. Odd. I guess that makes me almost 25. I don’t really have any strong feelings about being 24. I guess that I’m feeling pretty at peace with where I’m at right now, so life goes on.

Other news:

1. I discovered a wonderful new tea! Mayan Cocoa Spice, a flavor of Yogi Tea. Yum yum yum. Tea makes winter possible.

2. Knitting season is in full swing!

3. A good friend from college is coming home with me for Christmas!

4. I got an encyclopedia of Russian prison tattoos for my birthday! This is especially exciting. This past fall I’ve been on sort of a crime kick, watching The Wire, reading crime novels, and most recently really enjoying the movie Eastern Promises. The movie starred Viggo Mortensen, fed my obsession with Russia, and gave me a new appreciation for tattoos. I’ll give it 3.5 stars, only because I hated the ending. But back to the tattoos. Over the last year or so I’ve become passively interested in the idea of tattoos, after seeing some really stunning ones here in the Bay. And after my boss got a Maori tattoo in New Zealand, and after seeing this movie, I’ve become fascinated with the idea of using symbolic tattoos to record a story on your skin. I like the idea of tattoo as a sort of commemoration of a life event, as a talisman or guiding force, a visual representation of some aspect of your being. The idea of designing such a tattoo intrigues me. Maybe someday…..