Acetarium

Things have been hectic over the last couple weeks. Mako came over for a week and half and we had a pretty good time. We went to Coyoacan and got some tacos at an indoor market, got coffee in a Styrofoam cup, and walked around the park. Gunnar, a debian developer, showed us around and took us to Cuernava via Milta Alpa, Oaxtepec, and Tepoztlan.

The view from the stop we made in Milta Alpa was amazing. We had breakfast at Milta Alpa. It was very very cold up there but I had great mushroom soup, atole, and quesadilla to warm me up. Amazingly, we saw a lot of bikers going up this long hillie route. I’m not a very good climber biker, so I was surely impressed.

We checked out the debconf 6 site in Oaxtepec, got some vegetarian tamales, and had a great meal at Gunnar’s parent’s house in Cuernavaca.

We also found this awesome and mysterious taco stand right in front of my apartment. It shows up around 8PM and disappears around midnight from Wednesday to Saturday. The quesadillas we had there were some of the best ones I’ve had anywhere. Only 10 pesos per quesadilla.

As for work, I haven’t been able to do my research for the last couple weeks because of extra things that I had to do for the Ministry. It’s exciting to be part of the influenza planning team but I’m worried that I won’t be able to finish my research…I only have a month left!

As for Spanish, it’s still hard to be in meetings where only Spanish is spoken. Reading documents on influenza, ordering food, and buying things have become much easier but it’s so hard to learn a new language when people can talk to me in English. Oh well. I’ll keep trying.

I took a walk to get some water, rice, and soy milk. There was a fair for things made by young Mexicans, so I went there and got a piece of clothes.

I came home and realized that I still have a ton of nopales left, so I made a nopales paella. It turned out ok but I could’ve used better than bouillon too.

Then, I took a nap. A loong loooong nap. Ate more paella when I woke up and cleaned the litter box. Still a little stinky but we’ll survive.

I went to a mercado near my place to get some fresh vegetables and fruits yesterday. The mercado was not as big as the ones I went to in San Luis Potosi or in Tlaxcala but I could get most things I needed. I think I prefer the Tuesday market better but this indoor market is open every day, so it’s convenient.

For some reason, I was exhausted after this walk, so I slept for 4 hours. I hadn’t taken a nap this long in a while. I felt pretty good afterwards and made some arrabiata pasta for dinner.

My housemate and I were invited to go to a party at her old flat, so we went. It was a big party. The owner of the apartment said that their neighbors complain all the time and I could see how that might be the case. Loud music, lots of drunk people dancing, smoke machine, disco lights…oh, and professional face painters. I got one too. Unfortunately, my roommate had an allergic reaction to the paint.

I had a little too much to drink but met lots new people, so it was fun. Lots of international people and the conversations were a mixture of Spanish, English, French, and Japanese — I met a half French and half Japanese person.

We took a taxi home at 3AM.

Today was my first solo interview as a researcher. It was at one of the eleven institutes, the Instituto de Ciencias Medicas Nacional Nutricion. I was pretty psyched to do my interview but I didn’t have any details about the guy’s background. I tried to read up on the web but when I got to the place after about an hour of driving, I found out that he wasn’t really involved in the flu epidemic. I modified my interview questions, so that I could still get something useful out of this interview. I asked the same questions outside the context of the flu and my hypothesis seemed to be correct. I just need to start collecting the data. He also gave me the information for the right guy, so I’ll do my interview with that person next week.

I tried going to one of the moving mercados around 4:30 in the afternoon but the stores were closing by then.

This week, a lot people at work are gone for conferences. People seem to be more relaxed, wearing jeans and playing music. I can actually concentrate on my work and I completed two charts for policy changes in the flu epidemic. Tomorrow, I’ll do the WHO policies and I should be in good shape.

I went to a supermarket yesterday. It’s similar to what I see in the states. I got some bananas, parsley, toilet paper, shampoos, and a bar soap for 90 pesos or so. I prefer to buy food at the mercado, so I didn’t buy too much.

My landlord left for vacation and my co-workers moved in today. I really feel settled in now.

I deposited some money into my landlord’s bank account this morning. I just gave some cash and the account number to the teller and that was it. Pretty easy. I was watching a TV as I waited in line, which was quite long, and they said Mexico have more reptiles than any other countries in the world.

Some restaurants here have just sinks for washing hands outside the bathrooms. When my co-worker interviewed some restaurants, they said that these sinks are now used more frequently after the influenza outbreak.

The restaurant we went to today had these sinks and the place was very clean. My co-workers didn’t seem to like the food very much but I was happy to have some vegetables in me. I should try to make the fava bean soup I had there. It had mashed fava beans, nopales, chile, and tomatoes.

My new home doesn’t have a washer or dryer. A couple laundry ladies live on the top floor and I can pay 200 pesos for any amount of laundry. But that’s pretty expensive and since I didn’t bring very many clothes (just one carry-on suitcase and one backpack), I have to wash them frequently.

So, I brought my clothes to my co-worker’s house and washed them there this morning. She’s moving out this Thursday to move into my current place, so I might start washing my clothes by hand.

As soon as I arrived at work, my co-workers took me to a book fair at the National Auditorium. They told me that if the bookstores have some excess amounts of books after this week, they will be taxed, so they have an annual book fair and sell books for very very cheap. Many books were as cheap as 10 pesos and even nicer books like photo books and university textbooks were 100-150 pesos.

I got back to the office and left for lunch. At the mercado, I ate chile relleno con arroz and bought 500g of lychee for 20 pesos, 500g of tomatoes for 6 pesos, 250g of panela for 28 pesos, and 1kg of nopales for 10 pesos. I feel that I’m starting to live a real life here, instead of just being a tourist. It’s exciting.

I am sometimes amazed by how personal connections can expedite things. My boss helped me get the archival information from CDC by contacting one of the directors. The problem was solved within 2 hours after he contacted him. I feel relieved.

I still have much to do and the next deadline is coming up soon. Having lots of data in various formats makes my life very difficult. I need to really focus on finishing the systemic review of the policies this week because I have to start the surveys to policy makers and hospital directors next week.

We went to a hip sandwich store in Condesa and I got a mozzarella/tomato/pesto sandwich and green juice. I love these green juice in Mexico. The green juice I had 3 weeks ago had parsley, celery, and grapefruit. Today’s green juice had chaya, lemon, and something else. I need to start making them at home.

Ractor and I have different needs. More than electricity, I need iron.

Or at least, so I feel. It’s been a couple weeks since I got here and I started feeling a little dizzy last night. It’s possible that I’m just not eating enough in general but when I think about my diet here, iron seems to be especially low. It’s been hard not being able to cook my own meals. Now that I have my own house, I can watch my diet better. Perhaps, I’ll eat some cooked spinach with lemons tonight.

On the brighter side, Zocalo is recovering and he followed me around for a little bit.