We were all out of bed early this morning so Robin and Enid could make their 7:30am flight to Los Angeles. They will be attending the wedding of Robin’s cousin Bill this weekend, and then going on a short cruise with Robin’s parents and brother. The cruise ship is traveling, ironically enough, to Mexico and back (to Ensenada, in Baja California). I’ll be flying out to meet them in northern California next Saturday and we’ll spend the holidays there, returning to Monterrey January 2nd. But for the next week I get to enjoy the carefree bachelor life.
Last night was the “posada” at Enid’s preschool. It wasn’t a real posada (which, I’m given to understand, are increasingly rare these days) but actually a little Christmas show performed by the kids, followed by a catered meal. Since we’re talking about a preschool, obviously the performances were not very elaborate. The four year olds (Enid’s class) were able to (kind of) sing a song and dance in unison. The two and three year olds mostly just stood there and looked cute in their costumes. But everyone received plenty of heartfelt applause anyway, and a good time was had by all.
We also went to another posada with my coworkers on Monday night. That one was also mostly just a holiday party, but we did at least light candles and sing a brief version of the traditional posada songs, plus we broke a piñata. The party was at a guy named Hector’s house way out of town, and we had to slog through rush hour traffic for about an hour to get there, and then keep Enid up way past her usual bedtime, but it turned out to be worth it since it was a really fun party.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
A Story From Toad
This is a story that begins with a story that I forgot to include in my list of things to blog about (see immediately previous post): "First Forum Outing". We have visited the World Forum Festival here in Monterrey several times. There are photos and descriptions of it in the last "kodakgallery.com" album that I sent out and Marc has discussed it in this blog. But our first real experience took place on October 5th.
It was the 2nd week of the 80-day festival and I really wanted to take advantage of the offerings. I really wanted Enid to, too. The thing is, the paper Programs, printed weekly and widely available in public locations, were not user friendly nor was the website. There was lots of information but no clear and easy way to get specific and non-equivocal dates, places and times for various performances. I literally spent hours online at the website trying to piece it all together and then another hour trying to use the very aggravating "superboletos" (supertickets) website to actually purchase my tickets. Superboletos gives you a time limit for getting your business done, but if you are a 1st time user they also require all kinds of 'registration' information. This takes way longer to complete than the time they give you. I chipped away at it getting a little closer each time before getting booted. Eventually I got my tickets. I picked two shows: one for Friday after school - El Mundo Al Reves (The World, Backward) and one for the weekend that all three of us could go to - a play at the Teatro de Los Ninos called "Ombligo de la Luna" (Bellybutton of the Moon).
But the tickets had to be picked up at a local outlet. So I had to figure out where these outlets were. And fast because it was the Thursday before the show. I went Friday morning to Saharis, a vendor of CDs, DVDs, and show tickets. I waited. I waited some more. There was only one man in front of me but the guy who distributes the tickets wasn't there. I give up and decide I'll go back in a couple of hours, maybe he'll decide to come to work by then. I return. They guy is there. I wait. I wait some more. There is only one pair of women in front of me. I am now late to pick up Enid from school and the play starts in 2 hours. I get pushy and say in my poor Spanish, I just need to pick up some tickets and I am late to get my daughter from school. They say in their good Spanish - the computer is down and we can't issue tickets until it is working. I try to confirm in my poor Spanish that I can pick up the tickets from the taquilla (ticket box) on site at the Forum. "Yes", they say, “but the line will be long and I should just go to the Saharis at the mall down the road.” Sounds like a benign suggestion but I have never driven to this mall and there is no place here that can be accessed the way that it looks like it can be accessed on the map. (Incidentally since this story took place I have gotten accustomed to the way streets work and have much less difficulty getting to where I have to go. However, I still follow my basic protocol for going anywhere new: first, two drive-bys for reconnaissance, then an initial attempt just to get a feel for it, dress rehearsal if you will, and then a final attempt to actually arrive.)
So I race to pick up Enid from school. I make my 3 attempts to get to the mall. We arrive on the 4th try. Then I run across the mall with Enid to pick up our tickets. Enid is superbly cooperative and amused by our state of haste. (A proud parenting moment when your attempts to make chaos into something fun, works!) It becomes a true adventure and now I am enjoying the challenge of whether or not I can pull this off. The thing is, I still have to drive us home and get us across town. By Bus. Without knowledge of which bus we need because there is no such thing as a bus schedule. The show starts in 1 hour.
I get us home, make and pack lunch because there’s no time to eat, get Enid to use the toilet, discuss the possibility of taking a cab instead of the bus and am convinced by Enid that we should give the bus a chance (she loves the bus). I run with Enid in the stroller 4 blocks to the bus stop. We take whichever comes first, the bus or the taxi. Bus 214 comes. I know it will get us to the MacroPlaza. I ask if he goes all the way to Parque Fundidora (location of the Forum). “No.” I ask where we can transfer to catch a bus that goes there. He tells me. I fumble for change. While we wait for our stop I try to memorize the numbers of the buses that we can take to our destination. We get off. We wait and wait. Lots of buses, all with the wrong numbers. The show starts in 10 minutes. I see a taxi. I run across the street with Enid and ask how much to Parque Fundidora (like it matters!). We get in. I convince (maybe?) Enid that it is OK in this instance to ride in a car without a car seat. Again the crazy streets foil me and I fail to notice the entrance closest to our destination because it is in the middle of the freeway off ramp. So I tell our taxi driver to let us off at the next entrance. It is the main entrance and about half a mile from where we need to be. Off and running again! We arrive and thankfully we are not late, there is still a line of people waiting outside. Sweet Success!!
As we wait in line I piece together that the way this show works is that 12 people go into the theater at a time. It takes place in the dark at El Teatro de los Sentidos (the Theatre of the Senses). It is participatory and a real “experience”. This is why I wanted to go and to take Enid. I am excited that it will be an “intimate” thing because I was wondering how it would work with a room full of people. We inch closer. I start hearing about young kids not being allowed. We get to the front. The woman tells us Enid is too small. I tell her Enid is not afraid of the dark at all (very true). The woman hesitates. She says children under 8 are not allowed. I say Enid is a good kid and repeat that she is not afraid of the dark. I also point out that the program says nothing about age limits only that it is for adults and kids. She goes to talk to someone. “No.” I totally understand why they won’t do it but I am pissed about how super un-user friendly this whole experience has been and I tell her so - in ridiculously bad Spanish. She says they can reimburse the cost of the tickets. All I have to do is walk a mile across the park to the office with my uber-cooperative but disappointed and crying 3 year old!
I opt instead for the free Marionettas Aquaticas show, which was starting across the way in about 15 minutes. And this weekend, on December 1st, I finally made it to the office and got reimbursed! They were actually very efficient and friendly about it and we used the money to buy tickets to the circus that is there this week. It was a great circus and we all three had a really nice afternoon and evening.
The End.
It was the 2nd week of the 80-day festival and I really wanted to take advantage of the offerings. I really wanted Enid to, too. The thing is, the paper Programs, printed weekly and widely available in public locations, were not user friendly nor was the website. There was lots of information but no clear and easy way to get specific and non-equivocal dates, places and times for various performances. I literally spent hours online at the website trying to piece it all together and then another hour trying to use the very aggravating "superboletos" (supertickets) website to actually purchase my tickets. Superboletos gives you a time limit for getting your business done, but if you are a 1st time user they also require all kinds of 'registration' information. This takes way longer to complete than the time they give you. I chipped away at it getting a little closer each time before getting booted. Eventually I got my tickets. I picked two shows: one for Friday after school - El Mundo Al Reves (The World, Backward) and one for the weekend that all three of us could go to - a play at the Teatro de Los Ninos called "Ombligo de la Luna" (Bellybutton of the Moon).
But the tickets had to be picked up at a local outlet. So I had to figure out where these outlets were. And fast because it was the Thursday before the show. I went Friday morning to Saharis, a vendor of CDs, DVDs, and show tickets. I waited. I waited some more. There was only one man in front of me but the guy who distributes the tickets wasn't there. I give up and decide I'll go back in a couple of hours, maybe he'll decide to come to work by then. I return. They guy is there. I wait. I wait some more. There is only one pair of women in front of me. I am now late to pick up Enid from school and the play starts in 2 hours. I get pushy and say in my poor Spanish, I just need to pick up some tickets and I am late to get my daughter from school. They say in their good Spanish - the computer is down and we can't issue tickets until it is working. I try to confirm in my poor Spanish that I can pick up the tickets from the taquilla (ticket box) on site at the Forum. "Yes", they say, “but the line will be long and I should just go to the Saharis at the mall down the road.” Sounds like a benign suggestion but I have never driven to this mall and there is no place here that can be accessed the way that it looks like it can be accessed on the map. (Incidentally since this story took place I have gotten accustomed to the way streets work and have much less difficulty getting to where I have to go. However, I still follow my basic protocol for going anywhere new: first, two drive-bys for reconnaissance, then an initial attempt just to get a feel for it, dress rehearsal if you will, and then a final attempt to actually arrive.)
So I race to pick up Enid from school. I make my 3 attempts to get to the mall. We arrive on the 4th try. Then I run across the mall with Enid to pick up our tickets. Enid is superbly cooperative and amused by our state of haste. (A proud parenting moment when your attempts to make chaos into something fun, works!) It becomes a true adventure and now I am enjoying the challenge of whether or not I can pull this off. The thing is, I still have to drive us home and get us across town. By Bus. Without knowledge of which bus we need because there is no such thing as a bus schedule. The show starts in 1 hour.
I get us home, make and pack lunch because there’s no time to eat, get Enid to use the toilet, discuss the possibility of taking a cab instead of the bus and am convinced by Enid that we should give the bus a chance (she loves the bus). I run with Enid in the stroller 4 blocks to the bus stop. We take whichever comes first, the bus or the taxi. Bus 214 comes. I know it will get us to the MacroPlaza. I ask if he goes all the way to Parque Fundidora (location of the Forum). “No.” I ask where we can transfer to catch a bus that goes there. He tells me. I fumble for change. While we wait for our stop I try to memorize the numbers of the buses that we can take to our destination. We get off. We wait and wait. Lots of buses, all with the wrong numbers. The show starts in 10 minutes. I see a taxi. I run across the street with Enid and ask how much to Parque Fundidora (like it matters!). We get in. I convince (maybe?) Enid that it is OK in this instance to ride in a car without a car seat. Again the crazy streets foil me and I fail to notice the entrance closest to our destination because it is in the middle of the freeway off ramp. So I tell our taxi driver to let us off at the next entrance. It is the main entrance and about half a mile from where we need to be. Off and running again! We arrive and thankfully we are not late, there is still a line of people waiting outside. Sweet Success!!
As we wait in line I piece together that the way this show works is that 12 people go into the theater at a time. It takes place in the dark at El Teatro de los Sentidos (the Theatre of the Senses). It is participatory and a real “experience”. This is why I wanted to go and to take Enid. I am excited that it will be an “intimate” thing because I was wondering how it would work with a room full of people. We inch closer. I start hearing about young kids not being allowed. We get to the front. The woman tells us Enid is too small. I tell her Enid is not afraid of the dark at all (very true). The woman hesitates. She says children under 8 are not allowed. I say Enid is a good kid and repeat that she is not afraid of the dark. I also point out that the program says nothing about age limits only that it is for adults and kids. She goes to talk to someone. “No.” I totally understand why they won’t do it but I am pissed about how super un-user friendly this whole experience has been and I tell her so - in ridiculously bad Spanish. She says they can reimburse the cost of the tickets. All I have to do is walk a mile across the park to the office with my uber-cooperative but disappointed and crying 3 year old!
I opt instead for the free Marionettas Aquaticas show, which was starting across the way in about 15 minutes. And this weekend, on December 1st, I finally made it to the office and got reimbursed! They were actually very efficient and friendly about it and we used the money to buy tickets to the circus that is there this week. It was a great circus and we all three had a really nice afternoon and evening.
The End.
Monday, November 26, 2007
"Blah", said a voice from inside the house...
"Toad", said Frog, "it's your turn to post". "I am not here" said the voice from a corner of the room. "Don't be silly", said Frog, "The blogosphere is waiting"...
Toad blinked at the glowing screen. "I will make a list", she said. Toad typed on her computer screen: "A List of Topics To Blog About". Then she typed “I am a Toad who would rather think her thoughts than type them," I have done that post now, thought Toad, and crossed it out. Then, Toad typed:
Enid's class trip to the pet store
(Not) learning a foreign language
"You are a mom who realizes a lot of things"
Enid's Birthday: Part 1 - the no shows; Part 2 - Princesses & Barbie dolls
Embracing the mall
It's Freakin' Hot! (September) - inside house temp 90degrees
It's Freakin' Cold! (late November) - inside house temp 55 degrees
Things I am thankful for
Things Enid is thankful for
My life at the corner of Amazonas y Tamazunchale
Store receipts
Getting to know your husband through the blogoshpere
"There," said Toad, "concentrate hard and my stories will come to you..."
Toad blinked at the glowing screen. "I will make a list", she said. Toad typed on her computer screen: "A List of Topics To Blog About". Then she typed “I am a Toad who would rather think her thoughts than type them," I have done that post now, thought Toad, and crossed it out. Then, Toad typed:
Enid's class trip to the pet store
(Not) learning a foreign language
"You are a mom who realizes a lot of things"
Enid's Birthday: Part 1 - the no shows; Part 2 - Princesses & Barbie dolls
Embracing the mall
It's Freakin' Hot! (September) - inside house temp 90degrees
It's Freakin' Cold! (late November) - inside house temp 55 degrees
Things I am thankful for
Things Enid is thankful for
My life at the corner of Amazonas y Tamazunchale
Store receipts
Getting to know your husband through the blogoshpere
"There," said Toad, "concentrate hard and my stories will come to you..."
Monday, November 19, 2007
Today is a holiday in México (Día de la Revolución) so I got the day off from work and Enid got the day off from school. Robin and I thought about taking a family trip somewhere for the three-day weekend, but ultimately decided that we shouldn’t spend the money. So we’ve just been at home most of the weekend, except for some shopping errands. It’s nice to relax, but keeping Enid entertained all day for three days in a row is challenging. Robin has more stamina for playing with her than I do, probably in part because she gets plenty of practice during the week while I’m at work. I held up my end fairly well Saturday and Sunday, but unfortunately I woke up this morning feeling very run-down and tired, like perhaps I’m starting to get a cold or something. Mercifully, Robin has taken Enid up to Parque Chipinque this afternoon, so I’m getting a little break. I probably should be napping, but I don’t want to get too much sleep during the day and then not be able to sleep tonight. I recently started taking Xanax for insomnia and anxiety symptoms that were getting out of control, and I’m just starting to enjoy some solid, deep sleep again so I don’t want to mess that up.
The hot weather seems to be finished for the year. The climate is now quite comfortable most of the time, and we’ve even had one or two days that were downright chilly. It’s quite variable though, and a cool, cloudy day is often followed by a warm, sunny day. Maybe things will get colder in December or January, but if the recent weather is representative of the winter here then we certainly will have nothing to complain about. Well, nothing except the bad smell that often fills the air in our neighborhood on cool mornings. I’m not sure what it is, but it has the sulfurous smell of an oil refinery. There is a lot of industry in the parts of town west of us, so I suspect it’s blowing in from somewhere over there. Unfortunately poor air quality is one of the major sacrifices we had to come to terms with when we decided to move here. I can only hope that one year of it won’t do to much damage to Enid’s developing lungs. Hopefully all the time she spends breathing relatively clean air in Hawaii will help make up for it.
The Christmas season has already begun in Monterrey. Since they don’t have Thanksgiving, I guess they have no reason to wait. Twinkling lights are strung up all over town, and the stores are full of tacky seasonal brick-a-brack, fresh off the boat from China. It seems like the consumerism associated with Christmas is every bit as over-the-top here as it is in the USA. I am studiously ignoring it to the best of my abilities.
I did, however, feel obliged to take note of the current holiday and learn more about the Mexican Revolution this weekend (I got the day off work because of it, after all). So I took the path of least scholarly resistance and read the Wikipedia entry about it. I was quickly reminded why I abandoned my last attempt to gain some familiarity with Mexican political history: it is an endless, jumbled, convoluted mess of events and personalities that essentially defies any attempts to put it “in a nutshell”. Nonetheless, for the edification of my readers, here is my three-sentence encapsulation of what the Mexican Revolution was all about. There was a president named Porfirio Díaz who managed, through rigged elections and brutal suppression of opposition, to rule Mexico for thirty or forty years around the turn of the century. Finally, in 1910, a cabal of “revolutionaries” (including Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, and future Mexican presidents Madero, Obregon, and Carranza among others) fought a bloody war to unseat him. But after doing so they began to fight amongst themselves over power for the next several years, giving rise to a long period of bloodshed and instability that ultimately resulted in the Mexican constitution of 1917 and (eventually) political stabilization under the domination of the PRI political party.
That is the short story. The long story is a lot more confusing, but of course more interesting too. Note that the Mexican Revolution was not a war for independence like the American Revolution. They had one of those too, but we already celebrated it back in September on Día de la Independencia.
Not much else new to report. We got Enid some new jigsaw puzzles, which she is enjoying. The 35-piece rain forest puzzle she has done twice now, more or less on her own. The 300-piece Noah’s Ark puzzle she is slowly assembling with help from Robin. She is also continuing to sound out written words, edging her way towards early literacy. Her Spanish skills also continue to flourish. We aren’t pushing that very hard at home, just letting it come naturally though her time at school.
At work things are starting to inch forward at last. We’ve put together a basic research plan, and the necessary reagents are beginning to trickle in. I was actually able to do some work at the bench last week. Even though it was just some small, simple tasks, I found it remarkably satisfying to get my hands into the work after three months of being stuck in an office. Now my priority for the next few weeks is to get as many of my supply orders as possible shepherded through the university’s (slow and often unreliable) purchasing system before the lengthy work stoppage that I’m told will occur next month (due to the winter holidays). If I can get the orders placed before then, hopefully the distributors will deliver our reagents and consumables quickly enough to allow for an immediate burst of productivity once the spring semester begins.
The hot weather seems to be finished for the year. The climate is now quite comfortable most of the time, and we’ve even had one or two days that were downright chilly. It’s quite variable though, and a cool, cloudy day is often followed by a warm, sunny day. Maybe things will get colder in December or January, but if the recent weather is representative of the winter here then we certainly will have nothing to complain about. Well, nothing except the bad smell that often fills the air in our neighborhood on cool mornings. I’m not sure what it is, but it has the sulfurous smell of an oil refinery. There is a lot of industry in the parts of town west of us, so I suspect it’s blowing in from somewhere over there. Unfortunately poor air quality is one of the major sacrifices we had to come to terms with when we decided to move here. I can only hope that one year of it won’t do to much damage to Enid’s developing lungs. Hopefully all the time she spends breathing relatively clean air in Hawaii will help make up for it.
The Christmas season has already begun in Monterrey. Since they don’t have Thanksgiving, I guess they have no reason to wait. Twinkling lights are strung up all over town, and the stores are full of tacky seasonal brick-a-brack, fresh off the boat from China. It seems like the consumerism associated with Christmas is every bit as over-the-top here as it is in the USA. I am studiously ignoring it to the best of my abilities.
I did, however, feel obliged to take note of the current holiday and learn more about the Mexican Revolution this weekend (I got the day off work because of it, after all). So I took the path of least scholarly resistance and read the Wikipedia entry about it. I was quickly reminded why I abandoned my last attempt to gain some familiarity with Mexican political history: it is an endless, jumbled, convoluted mess of events and personalities that essentially defies any attempts to put it “in a nutshell”. Nonetheless, for the edification of my readers, here is my three-sentence encapsulation of what the Mexican Revolution was all about. There was a president named Porfirio Díaz who managed, through rigged elections and brutal suppression of opposition, to rule Mexico for thirty or forty years around the turn of the century. Finally, in 1910, a cabal of “revolutionaries” (including Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, and future Mexican presidents Madero, Obregon, and Carranza among others) fought a bloody war to unseat him. But after doing so they began to fight amongst themselves over power for the next several years, giving rise to a long period of bloodshed and instability that ultimately resulted in the Mexican constitution of 1917 and (eventually) political stabilization under the domination of the PRI political party.
That is the short story. The long story is a lot more confusing, but of course more interesting too. Note that the Mexican Revolution was not a war for independence like the American Revolution. They had one of those too, but we already celebrated it back in September on Día de la Independencia.
Not much else new to report. We got Enid some new jigsaw puzzles, which she is enjoying. The 35-piece rain forest puzzle she has done twice now, more or less on her own. The 300-piece Noah’s Ark puzzle she is slowly assembling with help from Robin. She is also continuing to sound out written words, edging her way towards early literacy. Her Spanish skills also continue to flourish. We aren’t pushing that very hard at home, just letting it come naturally though her time at school.
At work things are starting to inch forward at last. We’ve put together a basic research plan, and the necessary reagents are beginning to trickle in. I was actually able to do some work at the bench last week. Even though it was just some small, simple tasks, I found it remarkably satisfying to get my hands into the work after three months of being stuck in an office. Now my priority for the next few weeks is to get as many of my supply orders as possible shepherded through the university’s (slow and often unreliable) purchasing system before the lengthy work stoppage that I’m told will occur next month (due to the winter holidays). If I can get the orders placed before then, hopefully the distributors will deliver our reagents and consumables quickly enough to allow for an immediate burst of productivity once the spring semester begins.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007 9:26pm
Finally got the Hanahou’oli application inked and ready to send this week, so that’s a load off of our minds. We are all reasonably healthy this week. Robin and Enid had some low grade cold symptoms, but nothing too bad. It’s been just an ordinary week of work, school, and domestic chores. Enid’s class took a brief field trip to the local post office on Friday, and Robin went along. This weekend I got in a lot of quality time with Enid, just playing around the house on Saturday and then hiking up at Parque Chipinque today (Robin stayed home because she wanted to do some house cleaning). Next weekend is a three-day weekend (Día de la Revolución). We’re thinking about maybe taking advantage of the long weekend to go somewhere, but we haven’t decided yet.
There have been collections going on all over town for the last several days for the victims of the flooding in Tabasco. We don’t keep up with the local news here very well, but the Tabasco thing is everywhere and impossible to miss.
Speaking of news, we did read about two major crimes right here in our neighborhood recently. They occurred on consecutive Fridays and were on the front pages of the newspapers when we went for coffee the following Saturdays, otherwise we never would have heard about them. The first one was an attempted kidnapping of a 43-year old Mexican businessman outside a restaurant. He was with some friends who tried to stop him from being abducted. Shooting broke out and the guy was shot repeatedly in the legs. The assailants eventually got him into their vehicle and sped off, but ended up dumping him, wounded but alive, several blocks away.
The second crime was an apparent assassination attempt against a local casino impresario (although it could also likely have been just a warning, since he wasn’t killed). He was sitting at a traffic light in his car with his chauffeur when a van pulled up alongside and someone got out and started blasting away at them with an AK-47. The chauffeur was killed, but the casino baron only received some cuts from broken glass. The article said he has a reputation for operating his casinos illegally under the protection of corrupt government officials, and that he uses his connections to get other casinos shut down. Sounds like the assassination attempt couldn’t have targeted a nicer guy!
Both of these events happened within a mile or our apartment. It’s strange reading about something like that happening so close to home, at a place you drive by all the time and can picture in your head. Also, interestingly, both victims were taken to the hospital where I work. Not very surprising I guess, since it’s nearby and is a private hospital that caters largely to the wealthy. Kind of creeps me out though. It’s just one more reminder that the institution I work for is the local educational and medical care provider for the privileged elite, a group I generally feel little affection for even in the U.S. Here in Mexico, my distaste for wealth and privilege is amplified even more by the corruption and violence that seems to be inextricably bound to it. That special smugness that wealthy people everywhere have is just rendered so absurd by the circumstances. A six year old girl dressed in $500 worth of designer clothes is bad enough in the U.S, but in Mexico? Please! What is the point when there’s trash in the streets and daddy might get kidnapped or shot on his way home from work tomorrow?
Just my humble opinion. But then again, maybe it’s no better in the U.S. Our rich sit atop just as big of a shit-heap of violence and corruption, but they cleverly make sure it all happens far away, in other countries.
By the way, don’t let the aforementioned crimes get you worried about our personal safety here. Except for the unlikely possibility of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and taking a stray bullet I’d say none of this stuff is any threat to us. The people targeted by these kinds of crimes are running in very different circles than us. There doubtless are drug kingpins living in Del Valle too, but we don’t expect to become involved in their turf wars either. Still, it makes for an interesting place to live.
Finally got the Hanahou’oli application inked and ready to send this week, so that’s a load off of our minds. We are all reasonably healthy this week. Robin and Enid had some low grade cold symptoms, but nothing too bad. It’s been just an ordinary week of work, school, and domestic chores. Enid’s class took a brief field trip to the local post office on Friday, and Robin went along. This weekend I got in a lot of quality time with Enid, just playing around the house on Saturday and then hiking up at Parque Chipinque today (Robin stayed home because she wanted to do some house cleaning). Next weekend is a three-day weekend (Día de la Revolución). We’re thinking about maybe taking advantage of the long weekend to go somewhere, but we haven’t decided yet.
There have been collections going on all over town for the last several days for the victims of the flooding in Tabasco. We don’t keep up with the local news here very well, but the Tabasco thing is everywhere and impossible to miss.
Speaking of news, we did read about two major crimes right here in our neighborhood recently. They occurred on consecutive Fridays and were on the front pages of the newspapers when we went for coffee the following Saturdays, otherwise we never would have heard about them. The first one was an attempted kidnapping of a 43-year old Mexican businessman outside a restaurant. He was with some friends who tried to stop him from being abducted. Shooting broke out and the guy was shot repeatedly in the legs. The assailants eventually got him into their vehicle and sped off, but ended up dumping him, wounded but alive, several blocks away.
The second crime was an apparent assassination attempt against a local casino impresario (although it could also likely have been just a warning, since he wasn’t killed). He was sitting at a traffic light in his car with his chauffeur when a van pulled up alongside and someone got out and started blasting away at them with an AK-47. The chauffeur was killed, but the casino baron only received some cuts from broken glass. The article said he has a reputation for operating his casinos illegally under the protection of corrupt government officials, and that he uses his connections to get other casinos shut down. Sounds like the assassination attempt couldn’t have targeted a nicer guy!
Both of these events happened within a mile or our apartment. It’s strange reading about something like that happening so close to home, at a place you drive by all the time and can picture in your head. Also, interestingly, both victims were taken to the hospital where I work. Not very surprising I guess, since it’s nearby and is a private hospital that caters largely to the wealthy. Kind of creeps me out though. It’s just one more reminder that the institution I work for is the local educational and medical care provider for the privileged elite, a group I generally feel little affection for even in the U.S. Here in Mexico, my distaste for wealth and privilege is amplified even more by the corruption and violence that seems to be inextricably bound to it. That special smugness that wealthy people everywhere have is just rendered so absurd by the circumstances. A six year old girl dressed in $500 worth of designer clothes is bad enough in the U.S, but in Mexico? Please! What is the point when there’s trash in the streets and daddy might get kidnapped or shot on his way home from work tomorrow?
Just my humble opinion. But then again, maybe it’s no better in the U.S. Our rich sit atop just as big of a shit-heap of violence and corruption, but they cleverly make sure it all happens far away, in other countries.
By the way, don’t let the aforementioned crimes get you worried about our personal safety here. Except for the unlikely possibility of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and taking a stray bullet I’d say none of this stuff is any threat to us. The people targeted by these kinds of crimes are running in very different circles than us. There doubtless are drug kingpins living in Del Valle too, but we don’t expect to become involved in their turf wars either. Still, it makes for an interesting place to live.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Enid’s birthday party is behind us, thank goodness! It was a lot of work at the end (especially for Robin) to get all of the food prepared. We didn’t know exactly how many people were going to attend, but of course we had to bring enough food for the high-end estimate. Then there were the last-minute errands before the party to pick up the cake, ice, and helium balloons. I had to make a hurried second trip back to town to get the balloons. But then it turned out I didn’t actually have to hurry at all because nobody showed up for the party on time. In fact, nobody showed up until after 5pm, although the invitation was for 4pm. Enid didn’t notice that the party started late (children her age are notoriously un-attentive to schedules). But it was extremely stressful for Robin and me. As the minutes crept by and 5pm approached we began to get a sinking feeling in our stomachs, contemplating the possibility that nobody was going to show up. It wouldn’t have mattered that much to us, but it would have been a hard blow for Enid, who was very excited about the party.
It got to the point where I began to prepare Enid for the bad news (“You know Enid, sometimes we make plans in life that don’t work out exactly the way we want…). But how do you tell your little girl that nobody is going to come to her birthday party? At 5:05pm, in total desperation, Robin and I began trying to round up strangers so that at least there would be someone to break the piñata and sing “Las Mañanitas” (the traditional Mexican birthday song) with us. There weren’t any children in sight, but we did invite over three young adults who were sitting nearby (and who, it turns out, live on right across the street from us in Del Valle). Fortunately, at 5:10pm, one of the invited families finally showed up, and by 5:30 two others had arrived. Ultimately nobody else came, but the five or six other kids that were there seemed to satisfy Enid’s expectations. I think she had a fine time. She was a little disappointed that she wasn’t strong enough to break the piñata (“Why do the big kids always get to break it?”), even though I had considerably weakened it with strategically placed knife cuts to. But other than that there were no complaints.
One other problematic element adding to the party fiasco was that on October 28th, after we had already sent out the invitations and completely to our surprise, Mexico went off daylight savings time. With the clocks set back one hour, suddenly the sun was setting an hour earlier than we had anticipated. So, combined with the fact that everyone showed up an hour late, the party turned out to be rather brief. But as I said, Enid didn’t seem to notice and had a good time. She was also delighted by the gifts she received. In an ironic twist, one of the unforeseen consequences of our trip to Mexico is that Enid is getting her first exposure to two venerable American merchandising icons: princesses and Barbie dolls. Among her birthday gifts were one princess doll, two princess costumes, a Barbie doll, and a (child-size) Barbie blouse. She also got a toy makeup kit. While we’ve never actively shielded Enid from beauty and glamour-oriented toys, in the past they somehow never found their way to her. I suppose that among a lot of our friends and family there is some philosophical discomfort with the conventional female gender roles that such toys promote. But the families of Enid’s classmates are entirely free of such concerns. So now, for better or for worse, Enid has a brand new set of toys and a brand new set of interests.
It got to the point where I began to prepare Enid for the bad news (“You know Enid, sometimes we make plans in life that don’t work out exactly the way we want…). But how do you tell your little girl that nobody is going to come to her birthday party? At 5:05pm, in total desperation, Robin and I began trying to round up strangers so that at least there would be someone to break the piñata and sing “Las Mañanitas” (the traditional Mexican birthday song) with us. There weren’t any children in sight, but we did invite over three young adults who were sitting nearby (and who, it turns out, live on right across the street from us in Del Valle). Fortunately, at 5:10pm, one of the invited families finally showed up, and by 5:30 two others had arrived. Ultimately nobody else came, but the five or six other kids that were there seemed to satisfy Enid’s expectations. I think she had a fine time. She was a little disappointed that she wasn’t strong enough to break the piñata (“Why do the big kids always get to break it?”), even though I had considerably weakened it with strategically placed knife cuts to. But other than that there were no complaints.
One other problematic element adding to the party fiasco was that on October 28th, after we had already sent out the invitations and completely to our surprise, Mexico went off daylight savings time. With the clocks set back one hour, suddenly the sun was setting an hour earlier than we had anticipated. So, combined with the fact that everyone showed up an hour late, the party turned out to be rather brief. But as I said, Enid didn’t seem to notice and had a good time. She was also delighted by the gifts she received. In an ironic twist, one of the unforeseen consequences of our trip to Mexico is that Enid is getting her first exposure to two venerable American merchandising icons: princesses and Barbie dolls. Among her birthday gifts were one princess doll, two princess costumes, a Barbie doll, and a (child-size) Barbie blouse. She also got a toy makeup kit. While we’ve never actively shielded Enid from beauty and glamour-oriented toys, in the past they somehow never found their way to her. I suppose that among a lot of our friends and family there is some philosophical discomfort with the conventional female gender roles that such toys promote. But the families of Enid’s classmates are entirely free of such concerns. So now, for better or for worse, Enid has a brand new set of toys and a brand new set of interests.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
We’ve been rather overloaded with events and activities lately. It seems as if one of Enid’s classmates has a birthday party at least once a week. Strange, since there are only about 10 kids in her class! The parties are generally in the afternoon while I’m at work, so I’m excused from them. But they keep Robin and Enid pretty busy. And this week we got a triple-whammy: Enid’s birthday on Monday, Halloween yesterday, and Day of the Dead tomorrow. For Enid’s birthday we got off fairly light so far. The tradition at her school is that the birthday child’s parents come to the class for about half an hour as “guest teachers”. So we went over there Monday morning and I read some stories and sang some songs with the kids, and Robin brought them some cupcakes she baked. It made for a short day at work for me, but it was kind of fun.
The real birthday event is still ahead of us though, when we have her party at Parque Chipinque on Saturday. The preparations for that have been occupying a lot of time lately (mostly Robin’s, admittedly). Plus we’ve been working on an application for Hanahou’oli, a private school that we’d like to get Enid into next year. That’s important enough to us that we’ve been spending quite a bit of time on it. So much time in fact that we pretty much blew of Halloween entirely. I was really hoping to at least carve a Jackolantern with Enid, but it never came to pass. Enid and Robin did go to a Halloween party (again it started too early for me to attend) the night before Halloween, but I guess they never had time to put a costume together for Enid. Which also meant that she didn’t have one the next day when – surprise! – all of the teachers and students at her school showed up in costume. I think Enid was the only kid that came to school in her uniform on Halloween. I don’t think she minded, but I was a bit embarrassed. I mean it’s an American holiday after all.
But you’d be surprised how big of a deal Halloween is here. I’m told that up until several years ago it was unheard of to celebrate Halloween in Mexico, but now it’s really catching on, at least in Monterrey. I think it’s probably especially popular in Del Valle where the people have plenty of money to blow and seem driven to emulate the American lifestyle wherever possible. There were tons of kids and teenagers out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, or just roaming the streets in costume chanting “Halloween! Halloween!” Nobody actually came to our door, but our apartment is sort-of in back and upstairs, so it’s a bit out of sight. I didn’t mind. I was tired by the time we got Enid to bed, and I have mixed feelings about Mexicans celebrating Halloween anyway. It seems kind of like cultural pollution to me. Besides I hate all the landfill fodder (plastic pumpkins, cheap costumes, etc.) that fills the stores around Halloween, no matter whether it’s here or in the US. I’ll be glad to see all of that gone, even if it’s just to make room for all the Christmas crap (which has already begun to fill the store shelves here).
So, no Halloween this year, but I did manage to put together a little Day of the Dead altar for my mom here in the apartment. I enlisted Enid’s help, since she’s always up for an arts and crafts project. They have an altar set up at her school and they’ve explained Day of the Dead in class, so I figured “when in Rome…” Plus she’s getting to the age where she seems ready to benefit from discussion of lost loved ones, and ways that people deal with that. It’s also nice for me to have an excuse to talk to Enid about my mother, share a few stories about her, etc. She’s never going to know my mother or have any real understanding of who she was, but I want her to at least know something about her. Actually I felt rather guilty when I had to ask my father to send me photos of my mom for the altar. Not so much because I didn’t have any here- one could be excused for not bringing family photos on a trip like this- but because I realized I didn’t have even a single picture of her at home in Hawaii. I guess I’m not setting a very good example for Enid about how to esteem and honor one’s parents. Better change that before it catches up with me!
So, Day of the Dead is tomorrow, and we’ll finishing decorating the altar. Then Saturday is the big party. Did I mention that in addition to being a lot of work the party is costing us a small fortune? Trying to fit in with the Mexican upper class is expensive. It should be a fun party though, and Enid’s excited about it. But I think Robin and I will both feel a lot more relaxed when it’s over with, and when we’ve gotten the Hanahou’oli application mailed off.
Other than all the busyness, things have been good. On Sunday I took Enid over to the coffee shop for a bagel with cream cheese and then we rode the bus over to Cerro del Obispado and walked up to the top of the hill where the giant flag is. The weather has cooled down enough that it wasn’t too bad up there, even at mid-day. It was fun to spend some quality time alone with Enid, just her and me. I used to take her out every Saturday back in Hawaii to give Robin a break, but we fell out of the habit when we were living in Yountville. So I’m hoping to get back into that.
The real birthday event is still ahead of us though, when we have her party at Parque Chipinque on Saturday. The preparations for that have been occupying a lot of time lately (mostly Robin’s, admittedly). Plus we’ve been working on an application for Hanahou’oli, a private school that we’d like to get Enid into next year. That’s important enough to us that we’ve been spending quite a bit of time on it. So much time in fact that we pretty much blew of Halloween entirely. I was really hoping to at least carve a Jackolantern with Enid, but it never came to pass. Enid and Robin did go to a Halloween party (again it started too early for me to attend) the night before Halloween, but I guess they never had time to put a costume together for Enid. Which also meant that she didn’t have one the next day when – surprise! – all of the teachers and students at her school showed up in costume. I think Enid was the only kid that came to school in her uniform on Halloween. I don’t think she minded, but I was a bit embarrassed. I mean it’s an American holiday after all.
But you’d be surprised how big of a deal Halloween is here. I’m told that up until several years ago it was unheard of to celebrate Halloween in Mexico, but now it’s really catching on, at least in Monterrey. I think it’s probably especially popular in Del Valle where the people have plenty of money to blow and seem driven to emulate the American lifestyle wherever possible. There were tons of kids and teenagers out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, or just roaming the streets in costume chanting “Halloween! Halloween!” Nobody actually came to our door, but our apartment is sort-of in back and upstairs, so it’s a bit out of sight. I didn’t mind. I was tired by the time we got Enid to bed, and I have mixed feelings about Mexicans celebrating Halloween anyway. It seems kind of like cultural pollution to me. Besides I hate all the landfill fodder (plastic pumpkins, cheap costumes, etc.) that fills the stores around Halloween, no matter whether it’s here or in the US. I’ll be glad to see all of that gone, even if it’s just to make room for all the Christmas crap (which has already begun to fill the store shelves here).
So, no Halloween this year, but I did manage to put together a little Day of the Dead altar for my mom here in the apartment. I enlisted Enid’s help, since she’s always up for an arts and crafts project. They have an altar set up at her school and they’ve explained Day of the Dead in class, so I figured “when in Rome…” Plus she’s getting to the age where she seems ready to benefit from discussion of lost loved ones, and ways that people deal with that. It’s also nice for me to have an excuse to talk to Enid about my mother, share a few stories about her, etc. She’s never going to know my mother or have any real understanding of who she was, but I want her to at least know something about her. Actually I felt rather guilty when I had to ask my father to send me photos of my mom for the altar. Not so much because I didn’t have any here- one could be excused for not bringing family photos on a trip like this- but because I realized I didn’t have even a single picture of her at home in Hawaii. I guess I’m not setting a very good example for Enid about how to esteem and honor one’s parents. Better change that before it catches up with me!
So, Day of the Dead is tomorrow, and we’ll finishing decorating the altar. Then Saturday is the big party. Did I mention that in addition to being a lot of work the party is costing us a small fortune? Trying to fit in with the Mexican upper class is expensive. It should be a fun party though, and Enid’s excited about it. But I think Robin and I will both feel a lot more relaxed when it’s over with, and when we’ve gotten the Hanahou’oli application mailed off.
Other than all the busyness, things have been good. On Sunday I took Enid over to the coffee shop for a bagel with cream cheese and then we rode the bus over to Cerro del Obispado and walked up to the top of the hill where the giant flag is. The weather has cooled down enough that it wasn’t too bad up there, even at mid-day. It was fun to spend some quality time alone with Enid, just her and me. I used to take her out every Saturday back in Hawaii to give Robin a break, but we fell out of the habit when we were living in Yountville. So I’m hoping to get back into that.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Thankfully, things are rolling along smoothly this week. Enid is finally healthy again, and although she passed her cold along to Robin, Robin never got too sick and seems to be on the mend now. Hopefully we can at least enjoy a week or two of good health before Enid brings home the next virus from school. We all got our influenza vaccinations last week, so maybe that will help.
Also, we all seem to be sleeping well for a change. That's been a long time coming, and has made a big difference in our quality of life. Again, it will only last until Enid gets her next virus, but we are enjoying it while we can.
The weather has turned pleasantly cool these last few days. Tuesday morning was downright cold. No complaints here though. The days have been sunny and beautiful, and I will easily endure a little morning chill if it means relief from the heat and humidity.
Last Friday Robin had volunteered to help with Enid's class field trip to the Forum (a huge, 80-day, international festival of culture and the arts that is taking place in Monterrey this year). But since Robin felt sick I took the day off work and went in her place. It was a bit of a disaster because we were supposed to arrive at school early to carpool over to Parque Fundidora (where the Forum is taking place). But Enid slept in late, and we didn't want to wake her up since she was just getting over her cold. So when she finally woke up it was too late to carpool.
I could have driven us there, but I didn't want to deal with driving and parking, especially on a Friday, so we took the bus instead. The class was supposed to arrive at 9am and visit one of the exhibits until 10am, at which time they were supposed to go to the "Rincon de la Palabra" for a storytelling show. The bus didn't get us there until just before 10am, so I went straight to the Rincon de la Palabra. We had a good time listening to the stories, but Enid's class never showed up. We found them later, just by accident, at a picnic area where they were taking a snack break. Apparently they decided at the last minute to go to a puppet show instead of the storytelling. Enid and I joined them for the snack, after which they all went home.
So we didn't really end up doing the field trip with Enid's class, but we did have a good time. After the class left we went over to the Feria Internacional del Libro, a book fair that was happening at the nearby CinterMex convention center. I'd been there the weekend before to buy some new books for Enid, and I'd noticed there were activities for kids going on. Unfortunately it turned out that M-F most of the activities were reserved for school groups. But some of the coordinators let Enid sneak in anyway and do the activities in between school groups. So it worked out okay. And we had hot dogs and churros for lunch. You can't beat that!
The skies here are suddenly full of butterflys. I think a lot of them are monarch butterflys that have migrated down here for the winter. We were up at Parque Chipinque on Sunday and you could look up in the sky and see literally hundreds of them. Even in town they are plentiful.
The trip to Parque Chipinque was partly for fun and partly to do reconnaissance for Enid's birthday party, which is coming up soon. We decided to have it at Parque Chipinque because our apartment is too small and dumpy. So we're going to make it a picnic-type affair at the park. The people we'll be inviting are mostly Enid's classmates and their families. Enid was invited to a couple of their birthday parties, but couldn't go for one reason or another. Hopefully at least some of them will come to hers. Unfortunately we planned it for November 3rd, but November 2nd is Day of the Dead. We asked someone about that before we sent out the invitations and were assured that it would not be a problem. But now somebody else has told us that many people go out of town on that weekend. So we might have to change the date. Good grief! Just what we need!
But we've got to make this party happen, because Enid's pretty excited about it. Birthday parties for kids are a big deal here (or in Del Valle at least) and I think she's been getting a lot of pro-birthday-party propaganda at school. She knows she's supposed to have a party, that it's a big deal, and other kids are supposed to come. She's even chosen a theme, which is "Winnie the Pooh and Friends". We have dutifully attempted to find appropriate party paraphernalia, such as plates, cups, napkins, and even a Winnie the Pooh and Friends cake. We were planning to get a Winnie the Pooh piñata, but (even though they had one at the store) she fell in love with a giant pink butterfly piñata instead. Amusingly, she quickly decided that she loved it too much to see it get smashed, so now it will apparently become permanent decor in our apartment. Furthermore we will have to find another piñata to smash at her party, presumably something mean looking that she won't fall in love with. Do they even make mean looking piñatas?
Also, we all seem to be sleeping well for a change. That's been a long time coming, and has made a big difference in our quality of life. Again, it will only last until Enid gets her next virus, but we are enjoying it while we can.
The weather has turned pleasantly cool these last few days. Tuesday morning was downright cold. No complaints here though. The days have been sunny and beautiful, and I will easily endure a little morning chill if it means relief from the heat and humidity.
Last Friday Robin had volunteered to help with Enid's class field trip to the Forum (a huge, 80-day, international festival of culture and the arts that is taking place in Monterrey this year). But since Robin felt sick I took the day off work and went in her place. It was a bit of a disaster because we were supposed to arrive at school early to carpool over to Parque Fundidora (where the Forum is taking place). But Enid slept in late, and we didn't want to wake her up since she was just getting over her cold. So when she finally woke up it was too late to carpool.
I could have driven us there, but I didn't want to deal with driving and parking, especially on a Friday, so we took the bus instead. The class was supposed to arrive at 9am and visit one of the exhibits until 10am, at which time they were supposed to go to the "Rincon de la Palabra" for a storytelling show. The bus didn't get us there until just before 10am, so I went straight to the Rincon de la Palabra. We had a good time listening to the stories, but Enid's class never showed up. We found them later, just by accident, at a picnic area where they were taking a snack break. Apparently they decided at the last minute to go to a puppet show instead of the storytelling. Enid and I joined them for the snack, after which they all went home.
So we didn't really end up doing the field trip with Enid's class, but we did have a good time. After the class left we went over to the Feria Internacional del Libro, a book fair that was happening at the nearby CinterMex convention center. I'd been there the weekend before to buy some new books for Enid, and I'd noticed there were activities for kids going on. Unfortunately it turned out that M-F most of the activities were reserved for school groups. But some of the coordinators let Enid sneak in anyway and do the activities in between school groups. So it worked out okay. And we had hot dogs and churros for lunch. You can't beat that!
The skies here are suddenly full of butterflys. I think a lot of them are monarch butterflys that have migrated down here for the winter. We were up at Parque Chipinque on Sunday and you could look up in the sky and see literally hundreds of them. Even in town they are plentiful.
The trip to Parque Chipinque was partly for fun and partly to do reconnaissance for Enid's birthday party, which is coming up soon. We decided to have it at Parque Chipinque because our apartment is too small and dumpy. So we're going to make it a picnic-type affair at the park. The people we'll be inviting are mostly Enid's classmates and their families. Enid was invited to a couple of their birthday parties, but couldn't go for one reason or another. Hopefully at least some of them will come to hers. Unfortunately we planned it for November 3rd, but November 2nd is Day of the Dead. We asked someone about that before we sent out the invitations and were assured that it would not be a problem. But now somebody else has told us that many people go out of town on that weekend. So we might have to change the date. Good grief! Just what we need!
But we've got to make this party happen, because Enid's pretty excited about it. Birthday parties for kids are a big deal here (or in Del Valle at least) and I think she's been getting a lot of pro-birthday-party propaganda at school. She knows she's supposed to have a party, that it's a big deal, and other kids are supposed to come. She's even chosen a theme, which is "Winnie the Pooh and Friends". We have dutifully attempted to find appropriate party paraphernalia, such as plates, cups, napkins, and even a Winnie the Pooh and Friends cake. We were planning to get a Winnie the Pooh piñata, but (even though they had one at the store) she fell in love with a giant pink butterfly piñata instead. Amusingly, she quickly decided that she loved it too much to see it get smashed, so now it will apparently become permanent decor in our apartment. Furthermore we will have to find another piñata to smash at her party, presumably something mean looking that she won't fall in love with. Do they even make mean looking piñatas?
Monday, October 15, 2007
Enid has been sick for the past several days with a runny nose and cough accompanied by a low fever. We took her to the doctor on Saturday, and he said that it was just an ordinary upper respiratory virus and should clear up in a few days. Her fever does seem to be going away, and the cough seems to be getting better, but Sunday she had an upset stomach with diarrhea and vomiting, which was an unexpected and unwelcome complication. Today she seemed to feel better, but her energy level was rather low, so we kept her out of school. Hopefully she’ll bounce back tomorrow or the next day.
On Sunday morning Robin ran a 10K race that she signed up for about a month ago. She didn’t really feel ready for it, since she’d had a cold herself that messed up her training regimen. But she did manage to finish. The race was right here in Del Valle. Enid and I went over after breakfast and arrived at the finish line just in time to see Robin finish. That was fun.
Later in the day I took the bus over to a big book fair that was happening at Parque Fundidora. Apparently it’s an annual event. The plan was for all of us to go, but when Enid started to feel bad that became impractical. So I went alone. I was on a quest to get Enid some new books, since I’m getting extremely bored with the ones we’ve got, and the public library here sucks. The book fair was inside a big convention center, and there were dozens and dozens of publishers selling their wares. It would have been a great place to browse for Spanish books for myself, but I stayed focused on the children’s books. There were plenty, but obviously there were all in Spanish and I wanted to find some in English too. So that took awhile, but eventually I found a seller that had some. In the end I spent my 500-peso budget on a nice mix of both Spanish and English books.
Speaking of reading, Enid is starting to sound out words. It’s amazing how quickly she is growing up! New abilities just seem to appear out of nowhere. She’s getting such a personality too, and a real sense of humor. It’s fun to see. The reading thing is especially nice, because she’s always loved books and I just know reading is going to be a great pleasure for her. I don’t know if she’ll keep going with the sounding out at this point or not. Maybe once the novelty has worn off it’ll be too tedious to hold her attention. But it’s obvious that once she starts school reading will come easily to her.
Have you noticed that I haven’t talked about work yet? WELL I’M NOT GOING TO! That’s because I’m sick of work. Literally. It was driving me crazy. Other stuff probably contributed (like the sick kid) but mostly it was work. For weeks I wasn’t sleeping well, and then several days ago I started having symptoms of acute anxiety that were extremely unpleasant, to say the least. By Friday afternoon I got to the point where I was genuinely worried about my mental health (which of course made me even MORE anxious). After spending all weekend trying to get my mental and emotional equilibrium back, I’ve decided that life is too short for that kind of nonsense. So I’m reigning in my ambitions at work. No more trying to move mountains. Someone else will have to be the hero this time.
On Sunday morning Robin ran a 10K race that she signed up for about a month ago. She didn’t really feel ready for it, since she’d had a cold herself that messed up her training regimen. But she did manage to finish. The race was right here in Del Valle. Enid and I went over after breakfast and arrived at the finish line just in time to see Robin finish. That was fun.
Later in the day I took the bus over to a big book fair that was happening at Parque Fundidora. Apparently it’s an annual event. The plan was for all of us to go, but when Enid started to feel bad that became impractical. So I went alone. I was on a quest to get Enid some new books, since I’m getting extremely bored with the ones we’ve got, and the public library here sucks. The book fair was inside a big convention center, and there were dozens and dozens of publishers selling their wares. It would have been a great place to browse for Spanish books for myself, but I stayed focused on the children’s books. There were plenty, but obviously there were all in Spanish and I wanted to find some in English too. So that took awhile, but eventually I found a seller that had some. In the end I spent my 500-peso budget on a nice mix of both Spanish and English books.
Speaking of reading, Enid is starting to sound out words. It’s amazing how quickly she is growing up! New abilities just seem to appear out of nowhere. She’s getting such a personality too, and a real sense of humor. It’s fun to see. The reading thing is especially nice, because she’s always loved books and I just know reading is going to be a great pleasure for her. I don’t know if she’ll keep going with the sounding out at this point or not. Maybe once the novelty has worn off it’ll be too tedious to hold her attention. But it’s obvious that once she starts school reading will come easily to her.
Have you noticed that I haven’t talked about work yet? WELL I’M NOT GOING TO! That’s because I’m sick of work. Literally. It was driving me crazy. Other stuff probably contributed (like the sick kid) but mostly it was work. For weeks I wasn’t sleeping well, and then several days ago I started having symptoms of acute anxiety that were extremely unpleasant, to say the least. By Friday afternoon I got to the point where I was genuinely worried about my mental health (which of course made me even MORE anxious). After spending all weekend trying to get my mental and emotional equilibrium back, I’ve decided that life is too short for that kind of nonsense. So I’m reigning in my ambitions at work. No more trying to move mountains. Someone else will have to be the hero this time.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
I am screwed! The University of Hawaii closed my library account. It’s not really surprising considering I haven’t worked there for almost a year. In fact I was wondering when they would do it. But I was hoping against hope that they might not close it before I moved back. No such luck. I tried to access the electronic holdings on Monday and got the dreaded message: the account expired September 30th.
It’s a harsh blow because the life sciences holdings of the ITESM are meager. I’d use the word “pitiful” but I don’t want to be condescending. Now I’m reduced to reading only the open-access online journals and the handful of journals that ITESM provides electronic access to. Plus maybe some others they keep paper copies of, if I get desperate enough. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten an article *that* way. I feel like a slinking golum who’s lost his ring of power. “Thieves my precious! They takes it from us. They takes it, but it’s ours. Ours! We wants it back!”
You can cut off my thumbs, but don’t take away my access to scholarship.
It’s probably just as well though. I’ve been spending way too much time reading lately. I mean unhealthy amounts of time. Now I have an excuse not to. Things are starting to change direction anyway. Actual work is beginning to materialize. Luis suddenly has proposals for several trials brewing and wants me to prepare detailed protocols and lists of material requirements for the molecular/genomic components. Tricky since it mostly involves techniques that I’ve never actually used before. I’m trying to rise to the challenge though. We’re hoping to get funding from some pharmaceutical companies. If we get the green light on all of the proposals it will be much more work than I’ll be able to do alone. So, trying to be proactive, I arranged to have some fliers posted on campus today to try to recruit some 3rd and 4th year undergraduates. Not an ideal source of labor, but since we’ll only have one grad student in the lab this spring (yes, one; it’s a long story) I have to take what I can get.
Last Saturday we went back to the public library at the Macroplaza. It was open this time, but guess what? The children’s section wasn’t! Only open on weekdays it seems. Also, to get a library card I not only need to show identification and a recent utility bill (which I anticipated), I also need a passport size photo, my CURP (Mexican national identification number), and the contact information and signature of a co-signer who doesn’t live with me. None of which I anticipated. And keep in mind that this is the only public library in Monterrey. Can they make it any harder to get one’s hands on a book? This is clearly not a nation of readers. Still, we had a good time at the Macroplaza, especially Enid who found a puddle of dirty water to stomp about in until her feet were soaking wet.
On Sunday we drove to Saltillo, a mid-sized city about an hour to the west, to visit the Desert Museum there. We went with my boss José and his wife, sister and niece. It was fun to see the countryside beyond the city limits. Monterrey itself is quite green, but the landscape very quickly changes to desert west of here, hence the presence of a Desert Museum. The museum itself was first-class and very extensive. Enid seemed to enjoy it a lot. Unfortunately we kind of rushed through it because José and his wife had restaurant reservations for the afternoon back in Monterrey. I’d like to go again and stay longer.
It’s a harsh blow because the life sciences holdings of the ITESM are meager. I’d use the word “pitiful” but I don’t want to be condescending. Now I’m reduced to reading only the open-access online journals and the handful of journals that ITESM provides electronic access to. Plus maybe some others they keep paper copies of, if I get desperate enough. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten an article *that* way. I feel like a slinking golum who’s lost his ring of power. “Thieves my precious! They takes it from us. They takes it, but it’s ours. Ours! We wants it back!”
You can cut off my thumbs, but don’t take away my access to scholarship.
It’s probably just as well though. I’ve been spending way too much time reading lately. I mean unhealthy amounts of time. Now I have an excuse not to. Things are starting to change direction anyway. Actual work is beginning to materialize. Luis suddenly has proposals for several trials brewing and wants me to prepare detailed protocols and lists of material requirements for the molecular/genomic components. Tricky since it mostly involves techniques that I’ve never actually used before. I’m trying to rise to the challenge though. We’re hoping to get funding from some pharmaceutical companies. If we get the green light on all of the proposals it will be much more work than I’ll be able to do alone. So, trying to be proactive, I arranged to have some fliers posted on campus today to try to recruit some 3rd and 4th year undergraduates. Not an ideal source of labor, but since we’ll only have one grad student in the lab this spring (yes, one; it’s a long story) I have to take what I can get.
Last Saturday we went back to the public library at the Macroplaza. It was open this time, but guess what? The children’s section wasn’t! Only open on weekdays it seems. Also, to get a library card I not only need to show identification and a recent utility bill (which I anticipated), I also need a passport size photo, my CURP (Mexican national identification number), and the contact information and signature of a co-signer who doesn’t live with me. None of which I anticipated. And keep in mind that this is the only public library in Monterrey. Can they make it any harder to get one’s hands on a book? This is clearly not a nation of readers. Still, we had a good time at the Macroplaza, especially Enid who found a puddle of dirty water to stomp about in until her feet were soaking wet.
On Sunday we drove to Saltillo, a mid-sized city about an hour to the west, to visit the Desert Museum there. We went with my boss José and his wife, sister and niece. It was fun to see the countryside beyond the city limits. Monterrey itself is quite green, but the landscape very quickly changes to desert west of here, hence the presence of a Desert Museum. The museum itself was first-class and very extensive. Enid seemed to enjoy it a lot. Unfortunately we kind of rushed through it because José and his wife had restaurant reservations for the afternoon back in Monterrey. I’d like to go again and stay longer.
Friday, September 28, 2007
One other thing about buses (and I can’t believe I didn’t notice it until this week): The other day I got on and handed my money to the driver. As he pulls away, in between shifting gears, checking the rear-view mirror, and handing me my change, he crosses himself (catholic style). Very quick, very subtle, but unmistakable. It registers in my head as I drop the change into my pocket that I saw another bus driver do that too. I’m thinking to myself “must be a bus driver thing” but as I turn to walk down the isle of the bus I notice a passenger is also crossing herself.
So I started paying attention, and it turns out it wasn’t an isolated incident. On any given morning fully 10-20% of the passengers on my bus will cross themselves as the bus pulls away from my stop. I assume they do it at every stop, but my ride is so short that there are no other stops between where I get on and where I get off, so I can’t say for certain. Maybe it has something to do with me getting on? Are gringos considered bad luck?!
Anyway, speaking of buses, last Sunday we rode one to the Macroplaza downtown. It took a bit of trial and error to find the right bus (ruta 214), but it was worth it. We all had a great time. Ostensibly we went because we wanted to go to the public library. There’s only one, and it’s at the Macroplaza. I didn’t even want to think about trying to find parking in that part of town, hence the bus trip. The library turned out to be closed on Sundays, but as I said we had a great time anyway so it didn’t matter.
The Macroplaza, as the name implies, is huge, and is surrounded by various municipal buildings, museums, theaters, the library, etc. The north and south ends have grassy areas with trees, which are very pleasant. There were lots of families relaxing there in the shade. In the middle of the plaza there are some large statues and stuff. The only bad part was crossing the plaza in the afternoon heat. With the sun beating down from above and also reflecting up off the paving stones it was pretty intense. But aside from that, it was great, and just really nice to be out of the house doing something. At the south end they always set up a dance floor and have a public concert on Sunday evenings, but last Sunday something special was going on because there were huge lines of people waiting for food. Judging by the length of the lines, I assume the food must have been free. A big crew of people were working under a shade canopy to cook it. They had big kettles and skillets about five feet in diameter, and three or four people with spoons the size of canoe paddles stirring each one. At the concert stage some kind of musical show for kids was going on that was hosted by a very slim women in a skin-tight blue bodysuit. Her name was Lilly. She wore silver mascara and lipstick, and had two enormous blond ponytails. Her co-host was a giant chicken (well, someone dressed in a giant chicken suit anyway). It was all very loud and goofy and confusing. Enid loved it.
The library isn’t open Sundays, but it is open on Saturdays. Since we know which bus to take now, we may go back there tomorrow. We brought quite a few of Enid’s books with us to Mexico, but not enough to keep me from getting quite bored reading them over and over again at bedtime each night. Hopefully we can obtain a library card and start bringing home fresh reading material from time to time.
So I started paying attention, and it turns out it wasn’t an isolated incident. On any given morning fully 10-20% of the passengers on my bus will cross themselves as the bus pulls away from my stop. I assume they do it at every stop, but my ride is so short that there are no other stops between where I get on and where I get off, so I can’t say for certain. Maybe it has something to do with me getting on? Are gringos considered bad luck?!
Anyway, speaking of buses, last Sunday we rode one to the Macroplaza downtown. It took a bit of trial and error to find the right bus (ruta 214), but it was worth it. We all had a great time. Ostensibly we went because we wanted to go to the public library. There’s only one, and it’s at the Macroplaza. I didn’t even want to think about trying to find parking in that part of town, hence the bus trip. The library turned out to be closed on Sundays, but as I said we had a great time anyway so it didn’t matter.
The Macroplaza, as the name implies, is huge, and is surrounded by various municipal buildings, museums, theaters, the library, etc. The north and south ends have grassy areas with trees, which are very pleasant. There were lots of families relaxing there in the shade. In the middle of the plaza there are some large statues and stuff. The only bad part was crossing the plaza in the afternoon heat. With the sun beating down from above and also reflecting up off the paving stones it was pretty intense. But aside from that, it was great, and just really nice to be out of the house doing something. At the south end they always set up a dance floor and have a public concert on Sunday evenings, but last Sunday something special was going on because there were huge lines of people waiting for food. Judging by the length of the lines, I assume the food must have been free. A big crew of people were working under a shade canopy to cook it. They had big kettles and skillets about five feet in diameter, and three or four people with spoons the size of canoe paddles stirring each one. At the concert stage some kind of musical show for kids was going on that was hosted by a very slim women in a skin-tight blue bodysuit. Her name was Lilly. She wore silver mascara and lipstick, and had two enormous blond ponytails. Her co-host was a giant chicken (well, someone dressed in a giant chicken suit anyway). It was all very loud and goofy and confusing. Enid loved it.
The library isn’t open Sundays, but it is open on Saturdays. Since we know which bus to take now, we may go back there tomorrow. We brought quite a few of Enid’s books with us to Mexico, but not enough to keep me from getting quite bored reading them over and over again at bedtime each night. Hopefully we can obtain a library card and start bringing home fresh reading material from time to time.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Another workweek has come and gone. Enid and Robin are slowly getting over their colds. Just a few sniffles and coughs now. I never got it. Don’t know what I did to deserve that. Enid seems to have gotten over her reluctance to go to school. I started walking her over there with Robin every morning. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it. Probably she just has gotten used to the new school. Anyway, she is very cheerful now when we leave her there in the morning, which is quite gratifying. Today her class had their “venta de dulces” selling candy to raise money to buy a class pet. Next step is a class trip to the pet store. I think the plan is to buy fish.
At work I continue to spend my days mostly reading the scientific literature. But there seem to be some signs of movement recently towards getting some experiments started. Possibly some work on a gene called Protein Kinase C Zeta in follicular lymphoma, and possibly some work on a gene called TRAF3 in multiple myeloma. Plus hopefully a little microarray analysis of some breast tumor samples. I’m doing what I can to make some things happen. But I’m not stressing about it as much as I was at first. That was starting to keep me awake at night.
Just for fun, here’s my typical morning: Wake up whenever Enid does, hopefully around 7:30am but often earlier. Get Enid some breakfast if Robin hasn’t already. Take a shower and shave if I didn’t the night before. (When it’s hot I sometimes like to take a cold shower just before bed. The water isn’t really that cold, just cold enough to be refreshing). Iron my clothes. Help get Enid dressed. Usually by then it’s time to walk her over to school. The walk is nice. All three of us together, and it’s still cool outside at that hour. It’s only three of four blocks to her school, but Enid walks slowly so it takes about ten minutes. We usually talk along the way. Once there Enid gives us a series of alternating hugs and kisses, an invention of hers that she calls a “shamboni”. She asks us to walk out to the garden where the children play until class starts. All the teachers say “Buenos días Enid. ¿Cómo estás?” She’s getting less shy these days and will often smile and reply “¡Bien!”. Then she climbs up on top of the big plastic caterpillar and gives us a huge, joyful smile that says “Look at me!” I open my eyes wide with amazement and give her a big smile back that says “Look at you!” then wave goodbye and leave.
I kiss Robin goodbye at the corner and start walking to the bus stop. About a 15 minute walk. Careful crossing the streets. People don’t stop for stop signs here, sometimes don’t even slow down. Flock of big green and red parrots in the trees at the park making a hell of a noise. Trash in the streets. Lot’s of litterbugs in Mexico. The parks get cleaned, but not the streets. None of those crews of petty criminals in orange vests along the highways here. The other problem is that people put their trash out in any old bag or cardboard box they have handy, not city-provided containers with heavy lids. Stray dogs and cats tear open the bags. The trash gets spread all over, and it likely stays there until the next heavy rain washes it away.
Women sweeping carports and sidewalks in front of houses. Every morning see the same ones. I thought they were housewives at first. Now I realize they are domestic servants. Make the family breakfast and then tactfully disappear while they eat. Better to sweep outside while it’s still cool anyway. You also see lots of nannies here taking care of little children. They wear uniforms, kind of look like nurses. What do the mothers do all day? Not cooking and cleaning. Not raising their kids. Shopping at the mall?! Strange living among the rich…
Walk past a manhole cover with water gushing out and flooding the street. Third day it has been like that. Wonder when it will get fixed. Smells a little like sewage. Move over to far edge of the sidewalk so passing cars won’t splash me with it.
Pass the American football field. Home of the Pumas. American football is very popular here. When I walk by in the afternoon on my way home the field will be swarming with hundreds of little Mexican boys in shoulder pads and helmets. Parents in SUVs dropping them off. But in the morning the parking lot is used by students from CEDIM, a design college a few blocks away. As I walk by the guard asks me the time. I tell him, and think how odd it is that he doesn’t have a watch. Watches are pretty cheap.
Start down the hill now towards the bus stop on Morones Prieto. Other people coming up the hill, alone or in pairs, probably just got off a bus. At the bottom of the hill, by the fire station, someone stands waiting. He’ll flag down a bus, even though he’s not at a marked stop. People do it all the time. Buses stop anywhere, just flag them down like taxis. I could wait there with him, but I always walk to the marked bus stop farther down. I don’t know why. Walk past the main parking lot for CEDIM, right below the building. Always a line of cars waiting for a space. Wonder if they pay more to park so close? Notice there are more female students than males. Could be students at any U.S. college. Same clothes, hair, faces. Surprising how un-Mexican they look.
Get to the bus stop and wait for the bus. Never have to wait more than a few minutes. Lots of different routes go by here. Almost any bus will work, since I’m only going half a mile or so. First bus that comes along is the 202. Raise my hand (they’ll go right by if you don’t). Bus stops and I step on quickly (they don’t like to stop for very long). The fare is eight pesos. I hand the driver a ten peso coin as he pulls away from the curb. In between shifting gears he hands me a little stack of coins already stacked together in his change box: a five peso coin, a two peso coin, two one peso coins, and two fifty centavo coins. I put the two peso coin in my pocket and drop in rest in the fare slot. I wish the bus drivers back in Hawaii would make change. You’d never see that in the U.S.
A scruffy looking man with a beard is standing in the aisle in the back of the bus, struggling to stay balanced in the swaying vehicle as he plays the recorder. When he’s finished he’ll walk up and down the aisle collecting money. First time I’ve seen that. I sit down. People on the bus look more Mexican than the design students or my rich neighbors and their football playing kids. Dark skin for a change. My ride is very short, about three minutes. The bus swerves down a ramp and passes under Gonzalitos. No way to cross it except in a motor vehicle, otherwise I could walk or ride a bike. Once past Gonzalitos, the medical school is right in front of me. Reach up and press the red button. Beeping noise alerts the driver and he deftly swings over across two lanes of traffic and pulls up to my stop. Nobody argues with a bus. I step off before the bus has come to a complete stop, and as my feet hit the pavement the driver slams on the accelerator and the bus lurches away.
It’s starting to get hot now. Outside the med school cars and trucks and lots of little green taxis are turning the corner from Morones Prieto onto Calle Dr. Cantú. I wait for a break and dash across to the other side of the street (which is wet; seems like it’s always wet. Why?). A man stands on the other side waving a dirty rag in circles over his head with one hand and beckoning to the passing cars with the other. Couldn’t figure out those guys at first. Always waving those rags over their heads. Turns out they’re just selling parking spaces. 20 pesos, park as long as you want, pay when you leave. Nice to know someone is watching your car while you’re gone.
Something smells mightily of dead fish. That’s new. Enter the gate and cross the medical center parking lot, pass by the hospital entrance (saw actual, honest-to-god conjoined twins walking out of there the other afternoon; first time in my life). Cross the concrete plaza in front of the med school. Gets awfully slippery when it rains; can’t believe they did a trowel finish, should have broomed it. Through the doors and up five flights of stairs (swore off elevators; stairs are the only exercise I get these days). Building still smells new. Automatic doors open. Walk in and say “Buenos días” to Marisol, the receptionist. Ladders in the hallway, wires strewn on the floor. They’re working on something again. Unlock the door to my office. “Marc Crepeau Cull” the sign says. Still can’t get used to seeing my mother’s maiden name stuck on the end like that. When in Rome.... Enter, put down my briefcase. Unlock the cabinet and take out my computer. Plug it in and turn it on. Get my bag of coffee out of the cabinet (first things first!). Chiapas. Smells good. Three scoops. What the hell, four scoops. Down the hall for water. Pour it in the machine and press start. Hiss…gurgle, gurgle. Such a happy sound! Sit down and get to work.
At work I continue to spend my days mostly reading the scientific literature. But there seem to be some signs of movement recently towards getting some experiments started. Possibly some work on a gene called Protein Kinase C Zeta in follicular lymphoma, and possibly some work on a gene called TRAF3 in multiple myeloma. Plus hopefully a little microarray analysis of some breast tumor samples. I’m doing what I can to make some things happen. But I’m not stressing about it as much as I was at first. That was starting to keep me awake at night.
Just for fun, here’s my typical morning: Wake up whenever Enid does, hopefully around 7:30am but often earlier. Get Enid some breakfast if Robin hasn’t already. Take a shower and shave if I didn’t the night before. (When it’s hot I sometimes like to take a cold shower just before bed. The water isn’t really that cold, just cold enough to be refreshing). Iron my clothes. Help get Enid dressed. Usually by then it’s time to walk her over to school. The walk is nice. All three of us together, and it’s still cool outside at that hour. It’s only three of four blocks to her school, but Enid walks slowly so it takes about ten minutes. We usually talk along the way. Once there Enid gives us a series of alternating hugs and kisses, an invention of hers that she calls a “shamboni”. She asks us to walk out to the garden where the children play until class starts. All the teachers say “Buenos días Enid. ¿Cómo estás?” She’s getting less shy these days and will often smile and reply “¡Bien!”. Then she climbs up on top of the big plastic caterpillar and gives us a huge, joyful smile that says “Look at me!” I open my eyes wide with amazement and give her a big smile back that says “Look at you!” then wave goodbye and leave.
I kiss Robin goodbye at the corner and start walking to the bus stop. About a 15 minute walk. Careful crossing the streets. People don’t stop for stop signs here, sometimes don’t even slow down. Flock of big green and red parrots in the trees at the park making a hell of a noise. Trash in the streets. Lot’s of litterbugs in Mexico. The parks get cleaned, but not the streets. None of those crews of petty criminals in orange vests along the highways here. The other problem is that people put their trash out in any old bag or cardboard box they have handy, not city-provided containers with heavy lids. Stray dogs and cats tear open the bags. The trash gets spread all over, and it likely stays there until the next heavy rain washes it away.
Women sweeping carports and sidewalks in front of houses. Every morning see the same ones. I thought they were housewives at first. Now I realize they are domestic servants. Make the family breakfast and then tactfully disappear while they eat. Better to sweep outside while it’s still cool anyway. You also see lots of nannies here taking care of little children. They wear uniforms, kind of look like nurses. What do the mothers do all day? Not cooking and cleaning. Not raising their kids. Shopping at the mall?! Strange living among the rich…
Walk past a manhole cover with water gushing out and flooding the street. Third day it has been like that. Wonder when it will get fixed. Smells a little like sewage. Move over to far edge of the sidewalk so passing cars won’t splash me with it.
Pass the American football field. Home of the Pumas. American football is very popular here. When I walk by in the afternoon on my way home the field will be swarming with hundreds of little Mexican boys in shoulder pads and helmets. Parents in SUVs dropping them off. But in the morning the parking lot is used by students from CEDIM, a design college a few blocks away. As I walk by the guard asks me the time. I tell him, and think how odd it is that he doesn’t have a watch. Watches are pretty cheap.
Start down the hill now towards the bus stop on Morones Prieto. Other people coming up the hill, alone or in pairs, probably just got off a bus. At the bottom of the hill, by the fire station, someone stands waiting. He’ll flag down a bus, even though he’s not at a marked stop. People do it all the time. Buses stop anywhere, just flag them down like taxis. I could wait there with him, but I always walk to the marked bus stop farther down. I don’t know why. Walk past the main parking lot for CEDIM, right below the building. Always a line of cars waiting for a space. Wonder if they pay more to park so close? Notice there are more female students than males. Could be students at any U.S. college. Same clothes, hair, faces. Surprising how un-Mexican they look.
Get to the bus stop and wait for the bus. Never have to wait more than a few minutes. Lots of different routes go by here. Almost any bus will work, since I’m only going half a mile or so. First bus that comes along is the 202. Raise my hand (they’ll go right by if you don’t). Bus stops and I step on quickly (they don’t like to stop for very long). The fare is eight pesos. I hand the driver a ten peso coin as he pulls away from the curb. In between shifting gears he hands me a little stack of coins already stacked together in his change box: a five peso coin, a two peso coin, two one peso coins, and two fifty centavo coins. I put the two peso coin in my pocket and drop in rest in the fare slot. I wish the bus drivers back in Hawaii would make change. You’d never see that in the U.S.
A scruffy looking man with a beard is standing in the aisle in the back of the bus, struggling to stay balanced in the swaying vehicle as he plays the recorder. When he’s finished he’ll walk up and down the aisle collecting money. First time I’ve seen that. I sit down. People on the bus look more Mexican than the design students or my rich neighbors and their football playing kids. Dark skin for a change. My ride is very short, about three minutes. The bus swerves down a ramp and passes under Gonzalitos. No way to cross it except in a motor vehicle, otherwise I could walk or ride a bike. Once past Gonzalitos, the medical school is right in front of me. Reach up and press the red button. Beeping noise alerts the driver and he deftly swings over across two lanes of traffic and pulls up to my stop. Nobody argues with a bus. I step off before the bus has come to a complete stop, and as my feet hit the pavement the driver slams on the accelerator and the bus lurches away.
It’s starting to get hot now. Outside the med school cars and trucks and lots of little green taxis are turning the corner from Morones Prieto onto Calle Dr. Cantú. I wait for a break and dash across to the other side of the street (which is wet; seems like it’s always wet. Why?). A man stands on the other side waving a dirty rag in circles over his head with one hand and beckoning to the passing cars with the other. Couldn’t figure out those guys at first. Always waving those rags over their heads. Turns out they’re just selling parking spaces. 20 pesos, park as long as you want, pay when you leave. Nice to know someone is watching your car while you’re gone.
Something smells mightily of dead fish. That’s new. Enter the gate and cross the medical center parking lot, pass by the hospital entrance (saw actual, honest-to-god conjoined twins walking out of there the other afternoon; first time in my life). Cross the concrete plaza in front of the med school. Gets awfully slippery when it rains; can’t believe they did a trowel finish, should have broomed it. Through the doors and up five flights of stairs (swore off elevators; stairs are the only exercise I get these days). Building still smells new. Automatic doors open. Walk in and say “Buenos días” to Marisol, the receptionist. Ladders in the hallway, wires strewn on the floor. They’re working on something again. Unlock the door to my office. “Marc Crepeau Cull” the sign says. Still can’t get used to seeing my mother’s maiden name stuck on the end like that. When in Rome.... Enter, put down my briefcase. Unlock the cabinet and take out my computer. Plug it in and turn it on. Get my bag of coffee out of the cabinet (first things first!). Chiapas. Smells good. Three scoops. What the hell, four scoops. Down the hall for water. Pour it in the machine and press start. Hiss…gurgle, gurgle. Such a happy sound! Sit down and get to work.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Rough night last night. First Enid woke up with a coughing fit (lingering cough from a cold she has had for about a week). I had to get her a drink of water and put her back to bed. Then she woke up twice later in the night and vomited. Not much vomit and it wasn’t accompanied by a fever or much discomfort, but it was enough to prevent us from getting a decent night’s sleep.
Fortunately she seemed completely recovered this morning. Not me. But I did my best to stay positive anyway. And it actually turned out to be a good day. We all went to the coffee shop first thing, then played around the apartment the rest of the morning. Enid created a pet store with all her toy animals, and Robin and I were her customers. After that Enid took a trip to the moon in the cardboard box spaceship I built for her. Then we all took showers and got ready to go visit some new friends. They are the family of a woman named Patty who went to graduate school with an old friend of ours named Monica. Patty and her family were super-nice and easy to get along with.
Half of the family was totally deaf, which made for an interesting social dynamic. They could read lips a little, but even so Robin and I couldn’t communicate directly with them very well. But the family members that could hear interpreted with sign language for the non-hearing, and everyone had a good time. The best part was that Patty’s sister had two children (both hearing) that Enid was able to play with. They all got along well, and at the end Enid said she wished we could have stayed longer. It was just what Robin and I have been craving: a chance to have fun being adults with other adults while Enid had fun being a kid with other kids. Hopefully we’ll see Patty’s family again, although Patty herself is doing research in Taiwan and has to fly back there the day after tomorrow. She was only home briefly for the holiday, and to see her ailing grandmother.
One of the things the kids did today was draw with crayons. When Enid showed me her drawings I was totally blown away. The little girl that did nothing but scribble a few months ago is suddenly drawing recognizable people, trees, houses, rockets and ice cream cones. And signing her name to the drawings! When did she learn to do that?!
Fortunately she seemed completely recovered this morning. Not me. But I did my best to stay positive anyway. And it actually turned out to be a good day. We all went to the coffee shop first thing, then played around the apartment the rest of the morning. Enid created a pet store with all her toy animals, and Robin and I were her customers. After that Enid took a trip to the moon in the cardboard box spaceship I built for her. Then we all took showers and got ready to go visit some new friends. They are the family of a woman named Patty who went to graduate school with an old friend of ours named Monica. Patty and her family were super-nice and easy to get along with.
Half of the family was totally deaf, which made for an interesting social dynamic. They could read lips a little, but even so Robin and I couldn’t communicate directly with them very well. But the family members that could hear interpreted with sign language for the non-hearing, and everyone had a good time. The best part was that Patty’s sister had two children (both hearing) that Enid was able to play with. They all got along well, and at the end Enid said she wished we could have stayed longer. It was just what Robin and I have been craving: a chance to have fun being adults with other adults while Enid had fun being a kid with other kids. Hopefully we’ll see Patty’s family again, although Patty herself is doing research in Taiwan and has to fly back there the day after tomorrow. She was only home briefly for the holiday, and to see her ailing grandmother.
One of the things the kids did today was draw with crayons. When Enid showed me her drawings I was totally blown away. The little girl that did nothing but scribble a few months ago is suddenly drawing recognizable people, trees, houses, rockets and ice cream cones. And signing her name to the drawings! When did she learn to do that?!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
This is “4th of July Weekend” in Mexico. Happy Mexican Independence Day everyone! The weather is cloudy and comfortable again, after several hot and muggy days. Afternoon thundershowers today and yesterday, including a rainfall that thoroughly soaked me on my way home from the bus stop yesterday after work.
Today was a typical weekend day: coffee shop in the morning while Robin slept in late, then playing around the apartment all day with Enid, with one trip out for shopping. It always starts off fun, but by mid-afternoon I begin to lose energy while Enid does not, and by late afternoon it is essentially a test of endurance. How horrible to get to such a point of exhaustion that you can’t enjoy the company of your own child, especially one as fun, charming and well-behaved as Enid. But being the primary playmate of a three-year-old all day long is just too much for any adult. Especially one carrying around the kind of sleep debt that I am.
She gets tired too, but doesn’t recognize or admit it. It becomes obvious though as her attention span dwindles and she gets increasingly manic and loopy. Just about the time I am too tired for active play and really need her to focus on a simple, structured activity (like a game or coloring book) she has gotten to a point of tiredness that those activities are impossible for her. Instead she devolves into Brownian motion and an endless, shifting stream of consciousness narration that leaves one thought echoing through my weary mind: SHUT UP ALREADY! I become increasingly edgy and short-tempered, and finally enjoy the wonderful experience of having one half of my brain castigate the other for such lack of forbearance and for taking all my blessings for granted and for not appreciating my wonderful daughter, etcetera, etcetera, and then I pin the “World’s Shittiest Dad” medal on my own chest and go searching for alcohol.
But then finally the light appears at the end of the tunnel and her bedtime arrives. An hour of brushing teeth and reading stories and singing lullabies, and then it’s over. Next morning, far too early, I get up and do it again. Amen.
Today was a typical weekend day: coffee shop in the morning while Robin slept in late, then playing around the apartment all day with Enid, with one trip out for shopping. It always starts off fun, but by mid-afternoon I begin to lose energy while Enid does not, and by late afternoon it is essentially a test of endurance. How horrible to get to such a point of exhaustion that you can’t enjoy the company of your own child, especially one as fun, charming and well-behaved as Enid. But being the primary playmate of a three-year-old all day long is just too much for any adult. Especially one carrying around the kind of sleep debt that I am.
She gets tired too, but doesn’t recognize or admit it. It becomes obvious though as her attention span dwindles and she gets increasingly manic and loopy. Just about the time I am too tired for active play and really need her to focus on a simple, structured activity (like a game or coloring book) she has gotten to a point of tiredness that those activities are impossible for her. Instead she devolves into Brownian motion and an endless, shifting stream of consciousness narration that leaves one thought echoing through my weary mind: SHUT UP ALREADY! I become increasingly edgy and short-tempered, and finally enjoy the wonderful experience of having one half of my brain castigate the other for such lack of forbearance and for taking all my blessings for granted and for not appreciating my wonderful daughter, etcetera, etcetera, and then I pin the “World’s Shittiest Dad” medal on my own chest and go searching for alcohol.
But then finally the light appears at the end of the tunnel and her bedtime arrives. An hour of brushing teeth and reading stories and singing lullabies, and then it’s over. Next morning, far too early, I get up and do it again. Amen.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Culture Stymie
A funny thing happened on the way to the dictionary...
It didn't tell me that here in Monterrey when the school invites you to an open house; it means the kids stay at home.
Maybe it's just our school? Maybe it's Monterrey? Maybe it's Mexico? The point is, I have no idea. I only know that I double-checked the invitation to see if it said anything remotely related to this issue. Maybe I just didn't understand the Spanish. But no, just everyone knew that is was adults only. And it was fancy. All the teachers were dressed up, and the parents too. And there were tables with table-clothes and a full buffet of real Mexican food, not just snack type stuff.
I figured I should dress nice and luckily, thanks to Enid, I realized before we went that there wouldn't be any other children there. We were talking about the open house while walking home from school and she started talking about who was going to be looking after the other kids in her class. She said in a disappointed voice, "but grandma and grandpa aren't coming to Mexico". At first I reassured her that grandma and grandpa would visit but then I realized that she meant specifically that they wouldn't be here tonight! It became clear to me that the kids were not meant to come to this event. Which in some ways made perfect sense because it started at 8pm. I just figured it was the culture of staying up late that would make people take their kids out to something that started at 8pm. And maybe they would; but not to this particular event.
So we went anyway, with Enid, and pleaded dumb Americans without any relatives and no one had any problem with it at all. Enid loved it. She didn't want to go home.
Here's another thing:
Here in Monterrey (or perhaps all of Mexico?) they use the term piñata interchangeably with birthday party.
When Enid came home with a little note saying (in Spanish) "The kids are selling candies to raise money to buy a class pet. Please bring candies. You don't have to buy them just bring the kind from home that you get in piñatas", I thought, "well, shoot what kind of candy do I make that goes in a piñata?" "Now I'm supposed to make candy?" "The kind that goes in piñatas?" "What the heck is that?" Of course, my first approach was to go online and search "piñata candies".
Finally I asked one of the teachers. She explained that a) nobody makes candy for a piñata. b) most kids / families have a bag of candy sitting around the house - leftovers from all the piñatas (birthday parties) that they have attended. c) it's just the regular old kind of pre-packaged, prewrapped, buy it at the store kind of candy.
HA! I went back to read the little note. It says bring "dulces de casa". I took this to mean homemade. Buuuuuzz. Correct answer is "candies that are sitting around at your house already". The note says "de los que le dan en las piñatas" I took this to mean the kind that they give you in a piñata. Buuuuzz. Correct answer is the kind that you get at a birthday party. Admittedly, I would have assumed that I don't know what kind of candy you get at a birthday party either. But then it said "No es necesario comprarlos". You don't have to buy them. So if it tells me to bring dulces de casa that I'm not supposed to buy - what else am I supposed to think?! : )
So, I went out and bought all the things I needed so that Enid and I could make caramels. We went ahead and made them anyway, even after the teacher explained. They turned out really good. Not too difficult either. (Accept for when I forgot to grease the tin foil and then ended up having to pick bits of it out of a 9"x13" block of gooey caramel.) I cut them into little squares and individually wrapped each one in wax paper. I was so proud. Who's the good Mexican Mama now?!!
Robin & Enid’s Piñata Caramels:
2C light corn syrup
2 1/4 C sugar (the recipe says brown sugar but for the life of me I cannot find it here)
14oz sweetened condensed milk
1 C butter
Put it all in a pot, get a good whisk and bring it to a boil, stirring constantly. Keep stirring while its boiling until it gets to the “soft ball” stage (this means that if you put a spoonful of the stuff into cold water it’ll form a ball but if you take it out of the water again, it’ll flatten out). Then stir in 1 C salty peanuts (or whatever nut you want, if you want). Pour into 13”x9”x2” pan lined with lightly buttered wax paper or tin foil (my opinion is go for the wax paper). Let cool. Invert. Peel off paper. Cut into squares. I found it was easier to cut it into pieces if it was refrigerated first. But, it’s also about 90 degrees inside of our apartment – literally. Enjoy!
It didn't tell me that here in Monterrey when the school invites you to an open house; it means the kids stay at home.
Maybe it's just our school? Maybe it's Monterrey? Maybe it's Mexico? The point is, I have no idea. I only know that I double-checked the invitation to see if it said anything remotely related to this issue. Maybe I just didn't understand the Spanish. But no, just everyone knew that is was adults only. And it was fancy. All the teachers were dressed up, and the parents too. And there were tables with table-clothes and a full buffet of real Mexican food, not just snack type stuff.
I figured I should dress nice and luckily, thanks to Enid, I realized before we went that there wouldn't be any other children there. We were talking about the open house while walking home from school and she started talking about who was going to be looking after the other kids in her class. She said in a disappointed voice, "but grandma and grandpa aren't coming to Mexico". At first I reassured her that grandma and grandpa would visit but then I realized that she meant specifically that they wouldn't be here tonight! It became clear to me that the kids were not meant to come to this event. Which in some ways made perfect sense because it started at 8pm. I just figured it was the culture of staying up late that would make people take their kids out to something that started at 8pm. And maybe they would; but not to this particular event.
So we went anyway, with Enid, and pleaded dumb Americans without any relatives and no one had any problem with it at all. Enid loved it. She didn't want to go home.
Here's another thing:
Here in Monterrey (or perhaps all of Mexico?) they use the term piñata interchangeably with birthday party.
When Enid came home with a little note saying (in Spanish) "The kids are selling candies to raise money to buy a class pet. Please bring candies. You don't have to buy them just bring the kind from home that you get in piñatas", I thought, "well, shoot what kind of candy do I make that goes in a piñata?" "Now I'm supposed to make candy?" "The kind that goes in piñatas?" "What the heck is that?" Of course, my first approach was to go online and search "piñata candies".
Finally I asked one of the teachers. She explained that a) nobody makes candy for a piñata. b) most kids / families have a bag of candy sitting around the house - leftovers from all the piñatas (birthday parties) that they have attended. c) it's just the regular old kind of pre-packaged, prewrapped, buy it at the store kind of candy.
HA! I went back to read the little note. It says bring "dulces de casa". I took this to mean homemade. Buuuuuzz. Correct answer is "candies that are sitting around at your house already". The note says "de los que le dan en las piñatas" I took this to mean the kind that they give you in a piñata. Buuuuzz. Correct answer is the kind that you get at a birthday party. Admittedly, I would have assumed that I don't know what kind of candy you get at a birthday party either. But then it said "No es necesario comprarlos". You don't have to buy them. So if it tells me to bring dulces de casa that I'm not supposed to buy - what else am I supposed to think?! : )
So, I went out and bought all the things I needed so that Enid and I could make caramels. We went ahead and made them anyway, even after the teacher explained. They turned out really good. Not too difficult either. (Accept for when I forgot to grease the tin foil and then ended up having to pick bits of it out of a 9"x13" block of gooey caramel.) I cut them into little squares and individually wrapped each one in wax paper. I was so proud. Who's the good Mexican Mama now?!!
Robin & Enid’s Piñata Caramels:
2C light corn syrup
2 1/4 C sugar (the recipe says brown sugar but for the life of me I cannot find it here)
14oz sweetened condensed milk
1 C butter
Put it all in a pot, get a good whisk and bring it to a boil, stirring constantly. Keep stirring while its boiling until it gets to the “soft ball” stage (this means that if you put a spoonful of the stuff into cold water it’ll form a ball but if you take it out of the water again, it’ll flatten out). Then stir in 1 C salty peanuts (or whatever nut you want, if you want). Pour into 13”x9”x2” pan lined with lightly buttered wax paper or tin foil (my opinion is go for the wax paper). Let cool. Invert. Peel off paper. Cut into squares. I found it was easier to cut it into pieces if it was refrigerated first. But, it’s also about 90 degrees inside of our apartment – literally. Enjoy!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Day to Day
A cup of coffee at Starbucks costs $17 pesos. $30 if you want a mocha. Both tall.
A dozen organic eggs $35.50 pesos
Half gallon organic milk $37.90
These prices are more or less the same as we pay in CA. Cheaper than we pay in Hawaii.
Our natural gas bill was $351 pesos, though I imagine it will be higher next time since the $351 represents only part of the period of service. Haven’t gotten electricity or phone yet.
So, if you want to live cheap in Mexico, don't buy organic stuff and things that are "just like at home". Duh! And don't live in San Pedro Garza Garcia.
Buy limes - 6 good ones for $2.30 and tortillas - 20 whole wheat for $9.70, avocados - 3 for $13.08, spices in plastic bags - 35grams of ground cumin for $4.70, 35 grams ground cinnamon $4.40, bananas - 4 for $5.54, rice 750 grams (1 box) for $12.50 (and that was organic brown rice), pasta - 7 oz for $2.90. You get the idea.
I also found the price of tampons to be reasonable. I lost the receipt but I bought Tampax brand, the 10 per box kind and I think I paid about $28. Not bad. I expected to pay a premium for those.
Utility bills can be paid practically anywhere here. The bank, the grocery store, the 7/11. Or online. It seems mostly people pay bills in cash. En effectivo, it is said. I am told that Mexico is still very much a cash kind of place. There is definitely evidence of this though, at least here in San Pedro Garza Garcia I have noticed that many places accept credit and debit cards and even have their own kind of "store cash" card. Of course, I haven't had much opportunity (haven't taken much opportunity?) to deal in the little tienda and the my-neighbor-sell-this kind of economy which I know is common at least in other parts.
However, today I will go to a merceria (sundries and notions store) that is up a couple blocks to buy red and green and white ribbon so that we can dress up Enid's hair for Mexican Independence Day. They are celebrating on Friday at her school. The teachers sent home a note saying that the kids could come dressed up in traditional Mexican wear (they usually wear uniforms): jeans or traditional skirts, white blouses, braids, etc. So, I think we are going to do jeans and white blouse with red bandana around the neck and ribbons in braided hair.
Last week there was a meeting of the mothers of the kids in Enid's class. The school has classes for babies, toddlers and kids that are 3-4. Each age group has their own classroom. There are about 10 kids in Enid's class. About 7 moms came. The meeting was led by the school Director and her assistant (both very nice and helpful people). Mostly they went over school rules, like don't drop your kid off early, stuff like that. I understood very little beyond the gist of things. But afterward 4 of the moms and I went to a cafe. It was nice. They are a nice group of women. I have to say that even in English I find making new friends a bit intimidating. No less so in Spanish.
My plan is to finish up a lot of the household work that needs to be taken care of (finances, bills, insurance, management of CA and Hawaii houses, plans for school in Hawaii, etc) and which is a bit discombobulated because of the move and then make some calls and see if anyone wants to get together for coffee again, or a playdate. Like anywhere, people already have their social networks in place. And of course, these are parents who have children of various ages so breaking into their lives might take some effort! ; )
It's hard to know exactly what happens at Enid’s school but Enid always has something to tell me about when I pick her up. Twice a week they have music class, once a week a computer class and daily they do things like trace different kinds of lines, paint, color and complete various craft projects. The crafts usually consist of some little bits of paper getting glued to some other paper to create some object that is pertinent to the day's (or week's, or month's) theme. One day it was the "sol de Monterrey", which the teacher explained to me comes from a poem about the sun of Monterrey being for the children. The anniversary of the founding of Monterrey is coming up. And Mexican Independence day is the 16th. Yesterday, The kids all worked together to create a giant Mexican Flag. Enid got to work with another girl on the Eagle in the middle. They crumpled up little bits of brown paper and then glued it inside of the outline of the eagle.
While she was showing me the flag, the son of one of the teachers walked in. He was very friendly so I tried to chat with him a bit. He is 4. We discussed numbers and ages and then we talked about what 3 plus 3 is. He said something to me which I thought I understood but which then led to confusion. Enid laughed and said, "mom, he said 3 plus 3 is 3 plus 3". I am pretty sure that her comprehension is improving. When I picked her up last week she told me "Mom, I know why we have to wait to get our class pet. We are going to sell candies and then we are going to use the money to buy our class pet! So we have to set up our little store and sell the candies first. Then, we will go to buy our pet!" She was very excited and was very detailed about exactly how it was going to work. The funny thing is, that she insisted that she wasn't quite sure what the teacher had said and that she still didn't understand Spanish very well. But, in fact, she told me exactly what the teachers had told us parents.
I find her saying words to herself unconsciously, same as she does in English sometimes. While putting on her tights for dance class yesterday, she was hoisting up the waistband saying "cinturon". When I told her to add the corn to our casserole last night she asked, "todo?" (all). Maybe I should start attending pre-school too. I think it might end up being the only way I improve my Spanish too.
I promise I'll start working on the photo album so that you can see some pics of this place and of us in it.
A dozen organic eggs $35.50 pesos
Half gallon organic milk $37.90
These prices are more or less the same as we pay in CA. Cheaper than we pay in Hawaii.
Our natural gas bill was $351 pesos, though I imagine it will be higher next time since the $351 represents only part of the period of service. Haven’t gotten electricity or phone yet.
So, if you want to live cheap in Mexico, don't buy organic stuff and things that are "just like at home". Duh! And don't live in San Pedro Garza Garcia.
Buy limes - 6 good ones for $2.30 and tortillas - 20 whole wheat for $9.70, avocados - 3 for $13.08, spices in plastic bags - 35grams of ground cumin for $4.70, 35 grams ground cinnamon $4.40, bananas - 4 for $5.54, rice 750 grams (1 box) for $12.50 (and that was organic brown rice), pasta - 7 oz for $2.90. You get the idea.
I also found the price of tampons to be reasonable. I lost the receipt but I bought Tampax brand, the 10 per box kind and I think I paid about $28. Not bad. I expected to pay a premium for those.
Utility bills can be paid practically anywhere here. The bank, the grocery store, the 7/11. Or online. It seems mostly people pay bills in cash. En effectivo, it is said. I am told that Mexico is still very much a cash kind of place. There is definitely evidence of this though, at least here in San Pedro Garza Garcia I have noticed that many places accept credit and debit cards and even have their own kind of "store cash" card. Of course, I haven't had much opportunity (haven't taken much opportunity?) to deal in the little tienda and the my-neighbor-sell-this kind of economy which I know is common at least in other parts.
However, today I will go to a merceria (sundries and notions store) that is up a couple blocks to buy red and green and white ribbon so that we can dress up Enid's hair for Mexican Independence Day. They are celebrating on Friday at her school. The teachers sent home a note saying that the kids could come dressed up in traditional Mexican wear (they usually wear uniforms): jeans or traditional skirts, white blouses, braids, etc. So, I think we are going to do jeans and white blouse with red bandana around the neck and ribbons in braided hair.
Last week there was a meeting of the mothers of the kids in Enid's class. The school has classes for babies, toddlers and kids that are 3-4. Each age group has their own classroom. There are about 10 kids in Enid's class. About 7 moms came. The meeting was led by the school Director and her assistant (both very nice and helpful people). Mostly they went over school rules, like don't drop your kid off early, stuff like that. I understood very little beyond the gist of things. But afterward 4 of the moms and I went to a cafe. It was nice. They are a nice group of women. I have to say that even in English I find making new friends a bit intimidating. No less so in Spanish.
My plan is to finish up a lot of the household work that needs to be taken care of (finances, bills, insurance, management of CA and Hawaii houses, plans for school in Hawaii, etc) and which is a bit discombobulated because of the move and then make some calls and see if anyone wants to get together for coffee again, or a playdate. Like anywhere, people already have their social networks in place. And of course, these are parents who have children of various ages so breaking into their lives might take some effort! ; )
It's hard to know exactly what happens at Enid’s school but Enid always has something to tell me about when I pick her up. Twice a week they have music class, once a week a computer class and daily they do things like trace different kinds of lines, paint, color and complete various craft projects. The crafts usually consist of some little bits of paper getting glued to some other paper to create some object that is pertinent to the day's (or week's, or month's) theme. One day it was the "sol de Monterrey", which the teacher explained to me comes from a poem about the sun of Monterrey being for the children. The anniversary of the founding of Monterrey is coming up. And Mexican Independence day is the 16th. Yesterday, The kids all worked together to create a giant Mexican Flag. Enid got to work with another girl on the Eagle in the middle. They crumpled up little bits of brown paper and then glued it inside of the outline of the eagle.
While she was showing me the flag, the son of one of the teachers walked in. He was very friendly so I tried to chat with him a bit. He is 4. We discussed numbers and ages and then we talked about what 3 plus 3 is. He said something to me which I thought I understood but which then led to confusion. Enid laughed and said, "mom, he said 3 plus 3 is 3 plus 3". I am pretty sure that her comprehension is improving. When I picked her up last week she told me "Mom, I know why we have to wait to get our class pet. We are going to sell candies and then we are going to use the money to buy our class pet! So we have to set up our little store and sell the candies first. Then, we will go to buy our pet!" She was very excited and was very detailed about exactly how it was going to work. The funny thing is, that she insisted that she wasn't quite sure what the teacher had said and that she still didn't understand Spanish very well. But, in fact, she told me exactly what the teachers had told us parents.
I find her saying words to herself unconsciously, same as she does in English sometimes. While putting on her tights for dance class yesterday, she was hoisting up the waistband saying "cinturon". When I told her to add the corn to our casserole last night she asked, "todo?" (all). Maybe I should start attending pre-school too. I think it might end up being the only way I improve my Spanish too.
I promise I'll start working on the photo album so that you can see some pics of this place and of us in it.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Dirty Little Blog Secret
My dirty little blog secret is that I steal and plagiarize bits of my own personal e-mail messages. I find that I'll write something to someone and then think, "I could use that in my blog!" "I could make a whole post out of that!"
Is this allowed?! Am I cheapening my personal communications? Is it for the greater good of the many? I don't know the answer to these things but I'm pretty sure my posts would not be considered "greater good for the many". And, regardless, I'm going to keep doing it anyway.
Of late, my most inspiring muse is my friend Holly. In an effort to not cheapen my personal e-mail communications, I will not tell you exactly what she said. I will only tell you that I am currently ruminating on the various veils of understanding that accompany a move to a foreign country and an immersion in a foreign language.
For now, here is what I have plagiarized from a personal e-mail to yet another friend of mine (not Holly, though perhaps I’ll e-mail it to Holly too – three uses for one bit of writing!):
So far, my novice take on the moving to a foreign land thing is this:
You arrive and then,
1st - excitement and fun mixed with exhaustion
2nd - hope at the possibilities mixed with exhaustion of having to make them happen
3rd - you start to get a read on things and feel like it's not really that different (and maybe you were too tired to make some of those 'different' possibilities happen)
4th - you realize that everything is very different but you don't know shit about things and so you just carry on...
Maybe I'll have something more pithy and enlightening to say later on.
Is this allowed?! Am I cheapening my personal communications? Is it for the greater good of the many? I don't know the answer to these things but I'm pretty sure my posts would not be considered "greater good for the many". And, regardless, I'm going to keep doing it anyway.
Of late, my most inspiring muse is my friend Holly. In an effort to not cheapen my personal e-mail communications, I will not tell you exactly what she said. I will only tell you that I am currently ruminating on the various veils of understanding that accompany a move to a foreign country and an immersion in a foreign language.
For now, here is what I have plagiarized from a personal e-mail to yet another friend of mine (not Holly, though perhaps I’ll e-mail it to Holly too – three uses for one bit of writing!):
So far, my novice take on the moving to a foreign land thing is this:
You arrive and then,
1st - excitement and fun mixed with exhaustion
2nd - hope at the possibilities mixed with exhaustion of having to make them happen
3rd - you start to get a read on things and feel like it's not really that different (and maybe you were too tired to make some of those 'different' possibilities happen)
4th - you realize that everything is very different but you don't know shit about things and so you just carry on...
Maybe I'll have something more pithy and enlightening to say later on.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
If It's September 9th, This Must Be Mexico!
It's so weird to be making an entry into the world of the "school family". All my friends are writing about their kids starting school last week. Some kindergarten for the first time, some 1st grade, some middle school. Maybe it's because we're so far away but the whole "it's back to school time" escaped me; Even though, of course, I was doing the same thing here with Enid. She started on August 27.
It was weird not being around for Labor Day. I totally forgot about it because of course there's nothing about it here. I didn't realize until I was reading something online about Burning Man and I thought to myself, "Burning Man?!" that's not 'til end of summer....and then, "OH"!
It made me realize what a part of my subconscious things like Labor Day are. You think they're just holidays that come and go and to which we attach silly meanings to like, "beginning of summer" and "end of summer" - but then you realize your whole equilibrium is synchronized to them. And that everyone is going back to school!
It was weird not being around for Labor Day. I totally forgot about it because of course there's nothing about it here. I didn't realize until I was reading something online about Burning Man and I thought to myself, "Burning Man?!" that's not 'til end of summer....and then, "OH"!
It made me realize what a part of my subconscious things like Labor Day are. You think they're just holidays that come and go and to which we attach silly meanings to like, "beginning of summer" and "end of summer" - but then you realize your whole equilibrium is synchronized to them. And that everyone is going back to school!
Saturday, September 8, 2007
The hot, sticky weather has returned. Enid was out of school on Thursday owing to her cold. She had pretty well bounced back by Friday and went to school again, but then Robin didn’t feel well. Today I took Enid with me to the coffee shop first thing in the morning so Robin could get some extra sleep. Then Enid and I had a nice morning playing together, plus she baked bread with Robin. But in the afternoon I started to feel very irritable and short-tempered, probably owing to not sleeping well last night (Robin and I have both been sleeping poorly lately). Anyway, we went out to do some shopping, and by the time we got home I felt very wiped out and lay down for a while. That helped a little, and we all went out to the park around 7pm. It was nice outside with the sun gone down, and a good way to end the day. Robin is putting Enid to bed right now. Unfortunately it’s still quite hot here in the apartment. I’m looking at an hour or so of TV and/or light reading, then a nice cold shower to cool down before bed. Hopefully I’ll get a decent night’s sleep tonight!
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Another day submerged in reading about cancer genomics and DNA microarray applications. I think I may have finally reached the “inflection point”. Previously, every new bibliographic reference or website link led to another entire world of information. The subject matter seemed to be ever-expanding. But now I think I’ve finally glimpsed the outer boundaries. I still have a lot to learn, but at least what I don’t know has stopped growing.
One thing I’m beginning to recognize is that genomics is a very expensive line of research to pursue. I’ll soon be at the point where I’ll have to start requesting various essential purchases, and I’m quite curious to know what the response will be. Two issues that are pretty much out of my control, and which I’m entirely in the dark about, are my budget for supplies and reagents and my access to patient samples and data. A failure on either front is going to shut my down productivity quite rapidly. Time will tell…
Does it seem like all I ever write about is work? Must be very boring reading. Sorry, but work is rather all-consuming for me at the moment. Don’t get the wrong idea about my life here though. It isn’t as dull and tiresome as it must sound. After all, I am living in a foreign country. It’s very novel, and every day I see and learn things that I wouldn’t experience if we weren’t here. I could write about all kinds of stuff, but unfortunately I only get about 20 minutes a day (maximum) to contribute to this blog, so I’m just sticking with the basics: what I did today. And what I did today, mostly, was work.
It’s Enid’s second week of school and she has come down with her first cold. That sure didn’t take long! I am not anticipating a very good night’s sleep tonight. Oh well.
One thing I’m beginning to recognize is that genomics is a very expensive line of research to pursue. I’ll soon be at the point where I’ll have to start requesting various essential purchases, and I’m quite curious to know what the response will be. Two issues that are pretty much out of my control, and which I’m entirely in the dark about, are my budget for supplies and reagents and my access to patient samples and data. A failure on either front is going to shut my down productivity quite rapidly. Time will tell…
Does it seem like all I ever write about is work? Must be very boring reading. Sorry, but work is rather all-consuming for me at the moment. Don’t get the wrong idea about my life here though. It isn’t as dull and tiresome as it must sound. After all, I am living in a foreign country. It’s very novel, and every day I see and learn things that I wouldn’t experience if we weren’t here. I could write about all kinds of stuff, but unfortunately I only get about 20 minutes a day (maximum) to contribute to this blog, so I’m just sticking with the basics: what I did today. And what I did today, mostly, was work.
It’s Enid’s second week of school and she has come down with her first cold. That sure didn’t take long! I am not anticipating a very good night’s sleep tonight. Oh well.
Just finished reading my sister in law's blog about the beginning of her (4) kids' school year. I enjoyed reading about what is going on in their lives and found a lot of comfort in knowing about their day to day. It made me wonder if I would have found that same comfort if I weren't in Mexico. Maybe not. But I think maybe I would. The truth is that even if you live close by to someone, many someones, it's hard to keep a running dialogue. It's hard to share your day to day AND listen to everyone else's day to day on any sort of regular basis. I could name many examples of people who live in the same city, like each other, but only catch up once in a while. I hate to be a technology pusher, but how wonderful to have the option to remain an active part of each others' lives, regardless of where you are.
So, I decided I had better "pay it forward" at put a little something into our blog:
Enid is at school. Each day they send her home with a little paper "bracelet". Untaped and unfolded, it is a little report of her day. A simple checklist for the teacher to complete with space to write in what they had for refrigerio (snack - provided by the school). It says things like today I was happy, sad, mad, sick. I worked, played with friends, played alone, had fun, was distracted, felt tired, etc. I went used the toilet, didn't use the toilet. Ate my snack, Ate some snack, Didn't eat snack.
Enid is very amused by this bracelet. For fun, when she took it off, I said, why don't you read it to me today. So she looked down at it and sounded out the word "triste" (sad). I was a bit surprised, though I more or less knew that she knows her letters and what sounds they make. Of course, then she was confused why it said triste if she wasn't triste. So I explained the check marks. I asked if she wanted to read the one with the check mark and she made out the word "feliz". Who knew?
Maybe I'll balance this report later with a story of one of her amazingly unclever activities.
As for physical ability, goofball would be the best way to describe Enid. Aside from preschool (Mon-Fri, 9am-1pm), she goes to dance class twice a week from 3pm-4pm. She was showing a lot of interest in dance and there is a stuio around the corner, so we signed up. It's called pre-ballet / pre-jazz. She loves it. They have a lot of fun and I've been impressed at how they incorporate classical things like posture, balance, grace into interesting activities for the kids. But it is so funny to watch how Enid traslates watching a physical movement into doing a physical movement. It's just plain goofy. Something as simple as putting hands on hips: Thumbs go around back, fingers in front, hands more or less parallel with the floor, right? Not for Enid. Entire hand goes in front, with heel of palm resting on hip and with fingers pointed down. She has some sort of quirky interpretation for many of the things they do. I've noticed though that even just in the first week, she's made some improvement. For example, she now hops like a frog with both feet together - would not (could not?) do it before.
Almost time to pick up Enid from school.
As for me, I get depressed when Enid goes to school and all I have to look at is unpacking boxes whose contents don't really have a good place to go. I'm alternately enthused for getting it all done and organized and unmotivated to do it and find that the apartment is still ugly and not organized the way I'd do it if we were going to be here a while. Translation, I really don't want to spend money on things like bookshelves, etc when I know we're going to ditch them a year from now. At some point, I will get motivated to find creative solutions and probably will spend a little money too. But not today.
As for money. Here is what some things cost (for your curiosity and because when we were planning this trip we had a very hard time knowing what our cost of living would be because we really didn't know what things would cost (prices are in pesos. current exchange is about 10.8:1, easier to assume 10:1 if you want to translate):
Monthly rent for our apartment: $8,000
Haven't had to pay utilities yet
fill the 10 gal tank on our car: $270
8oz of organic jack cheese: $45
1 can black beans: $6.90
3 sm/meg avocados: $13
1 box HEB brand cornflakes: $14.60
20 whole wheat tortillas: $9.70
16oz bag organic brocolli: $21.50
1 jar natural (the kind that separates - hard to find!) peanut butter: $25.60
1 large roll paper towels: $19.30
OK, gotta go...
So, I decided I had better "pay it forward" at put a little something into our blog:
Enid is at school. Each day they send her home with a little paper "bracelet". Untaped and unfolded, it is a little report of her day. A simple checklist for the teacher to complete with space to write in what they had for refrigerio (snack - provided by the school). It says things like today I was happy, sad, mad, sick. I worked, played with friends, played alone, had fun, was distracted, felt tired, etc. I went used the toilet, didn't use the toilet. Ate my snack, Ate some snack, Didn't eat snack.
Enid is very amused by this bracelet. For fun, when she took it off, I said, why don't you read it to me today. So she looked down at it and sounded out the word "triste" (sad). I was a bit surprised, though I more or less knew that she knows her letters and what sounds they make. Of course, then she was confused why it said triste if she wasn't triste. So I explained the check marks. I asked if she wanted to read the one with the check mark and she made out the word "feliz". Who knew?
Maybe I'll balance this report later with a story of one of her amazingly unclever activities.
As for physical ability, goofball would be the best way to describe Enid. Aside from preschool (Mon-Fri, 9am-1pm), she goes to dance class twice a week from 3pm-4pm. She was showing a lot of interest in dance and there is a stuio around the corner, so we signed up. It's called pre-ballet / pre-jazz. She loves it. They have a lot of fun and I've been impressed at how they incorporate classical things like posture, balance, grace into interesting activities for the kids. But it is so funny to watch how Enid traslates watching a physical movement into doing a physical movement. It's just plain goofy. Something as simple as putting hands on hips: Thumbs go around back, fingers in front, hands more or less parallel with the floor, right? Not for Enid. Entire hand goes in front, with heel of palm resting on hip and with fingers pointed down. She has some sort of quirky interpretation for many of the things they do. I've noticed though that even just in the first week, she's made some improvement. For example, she now hops like a frog with both feet together - would not (could not?) do it before.
Almost time to pick up Enid from school.
As for me, I get depressed when Enid goes to school and all I have to look at is unpacking boxes whose contents don't really have a good place to go. I'm alternately enthused for getting it all done and organized and unmotivated to do it and find that the apartment is still ugly and not organized the way I'd do it if we were going to be here a while. Translation, I really don't want to spend money on things like bookshelves, etc when I know we're going to ditch them a year from now. At some point, I will get motivated to find creative solutions and probably will spend a little money too. But not today.
As for money. Here is what some things cost (for your curiosity and because when we were planning this trip we had a very hard time knowing what our cost of living would be because we really didn't know what things would cost (prices are in pesos. current exchange is about 10.8:1, easier to assume 10:1 if you want to translate):
Monthly rent for our apartment: $8,000
Haven't had to pay utilities yet
fill the 10 gal tank on our car: $270
8oz of organic jack cheese: $45
1 can black beans: $6.90
3 sm/meg avocados: $13
1 box HEB brand cornflakes: $14.60
20 whole wheat tortillas: $9.70
16oz bag organic brocolli: $21.50
1 jar natural (the kind that separates - hard to find!) peanut butter: $25.60
1 large roll paper towels: $19.30
OK, gotta go...
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Salsa
Though we've eaten out only two or three times since we've been here, I am feeling very influenced by the food. It's not a difficult task to convince me to eat a lot of beans, tortillas, corn, avocados and spicy tomato-based products. Yum!
It's not the restaurants that are convincing me either (see earlier post about how we are living in a very strange part of Mexico where yummy taquerias are not bountiful, though French bistros are) - it's the Supermarket. Admittedly I shop at the HEB as often as the Super "G" (for Gigante) but no matter, they both have an entire aisle dedicated to salsa, hot sauce and similar condiments. Next aisle over is dedicated to beans and the like and there is more cheese than you can believe there are cows on this earth to produce it. There is *always* a sampler lady waiting to heat up a tortilla for you on her comal - and she'll put beans or chicharones on it for you. There are corn tortillas, flour tortillas, whole wheat tortillas, raw tortillas ready for you to heat up on your own comal (or sauce pan as the case may be), and those wonderful thick corn tortilla like things that have edges so your stuff doesn't fall off (sopes maybe?).
By far, my favorite part is the hot sauces. So far I have tried Cholula and La Costena’s salsa de chile chipotle. Love ‘em! The Cholulu is hotter. The Costena has that great chipotle flavor. I plan to try every single one. The salsas are good too but I don’t feel as justified about keeping several open jars in the fridge. So mostly I’ve been sticking with one good salsa casera (basic table salsa) and the occasional tomatillo salsa. Still trying to decide which brands I prefer. Herdez is fine but I feel I could do better. Getting ready to open a Del Fuerte box (yes, lots of products come in little hermetic boxes en vez de bottle) of salsa verde. I’ll let you know how it goes…
It's not the restaurants that are convincing me either (see earlier post about how we are living in a very strange part of Mexico where yummy taquerias are not bountiful, though French bistros are) - it's the Supermarket. Admittedly I shop at the HEB as often as the Super "G" (for Gigante) but no matter, they both have an entire aisle dedicated to salsa, hot sauce and similar condiments. Next aisle over is dedicated to beans and the like and there is more cheese than you can believe there are cows on this earth to produce it. There is *always* a sampler lady waiting to heat up a tortilla for you on her comal - and she'll put beans or chicharones on it for you. There are corn tortillas, flour tortillas, whole wheat tortillas, raw tortillas ready for you to heat up on your own comal (or sauce pan as the case may be), and those wonderful thick corn tortilla like things that have edges so your stuff doesn't fall off (sopes maybe?).
By far, my favorite part is the hot sauces. So far I have tried Cholula and La Costena’s salsa de chile chipotle. Love ‘em! The Cholulu is hotter. The Costena has that great chipotle flavor. I plan to try every single one. The salsas are good too but I don’t feel as justified about keeping several open jars in the fridge. So mostly I’ve been sticking with one good salsa casera (basic table salsa) and the occasional tomatillo salsa. Still trying to decide which brands I prefer. Herdez is fine but I feel I could do better. Getting ready to open a Del Fuerte box (yes, lots of products come in little hermetic boxes en vez de bottle) of salsa verde. I’ll let you know how it goes…
It was a nice weekend just spending time together as a family. Yesterday we went up to Parque Chipinque for a few hours. Again it was great to be out of the city. Saw more amazing insects. Big beetles and stuff. Today we went to the local planetarium/science museum which turned out to be quite good. Enid always likes the hands-on exhibits at science centers. Unfortunately the IMAX film about sea life that we saw was a little too scary for her. The sea creatures were awfully big on that huge screen, and they kept eating each other. She had her eyes closed through about half of it. But I guess she still enjoyed it.
The only problem with the weekend was that neither Robin nor I have been sleeping well lately, and it is really starting to catch up with us. I guess we are still adapting to the new situation here. I know personally I’ve been very wound up and preoccupied about my work. But after several nights of crummy sleep I’m realizing that I have to relax and slow down a little. It’s true I only have a year (actually 11 months now!) to make something happen in the lab, but if I’m not sleeping at night I’m not going to be able to get anything done anyway.
The only problem with the weekend was that neither Robin nor I have been sleeping well lately, and it is really starting to catch up with us. I guess we are still adapting to the new situation here. I know personally I’ve been very wound up and preoccupied about my work. But after several nights of crummy sleep I’m realizing that I have to relax and slow down a little. It’s true I only have a year (actually 11 months now!) to make something happen in the lab, but if I’m not sleeping at night I’m not going to be able to get anything done anyway.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Payday! Of course, the entire paycheck (and then some) is already spoken for, between rent and Enid’s preschool tuition. That sort of takes the fun out of it. But “peor es nada” as they say.
I spent most of the morning immersed in the study of cancer genomics. I’m starting to shift my emphasis from broad reading of background material to specific study of individual papers, trying to get a detailed understanding of the methods and experimental design elements that I want to emulate. I need to figure out ASAP what resources are missing from our lab and then either get them in the purchasing pipeline (if our budget allows) or start searching for other ways to get them (i.e. inter-institutional collaborations or extramural funding sources).
I spent the afternoon reviewing a paper I’m co-author on from my last job. I hated to spend work time on that, but it would be impossible to do at home with Enid around. The paper is pretty close to its final revision, and as it turned out I didn’t have many substantive comments to make. But as a co-author I still felt obligated to give it a thorough reading and make comments, even if they were just minor edits.
Enid finished her first week of school without any major problems, and is still reporting that she likes it. Unfortunately her preschool in Yountville is a tough act to follow. It was very well run with lots of good material resources, and the daily program included lots of free-play time and creative activities that were well suited to Enid’s skills and interests. Also she was something of a teachers pet there, owing to her advanced verbal abilities and adult-centric social tendencies. Here the educational approach seems to be quite different, with a more rigid structure, and of course Enid is no longer able to engage her teachers verbally the way she could in English. I worry that she may feel lonely and isolated in school, but she hasn’t complained. Anyway, it’s only the first week and presumably she will speak more Spanish as time goes by.
Lots of people have told us “Don’t worry! She’ll be speaking Spanish better than you in no time! They’re like sponges at that age”. But we aren’t convinced. Those people don’t know Enid. She is not all that sociable, especially with other kids, so she may not feel much incentive to speak Spanish. Plus she can be very stubborn about things she decides she DOESN’T want to do. If speaking Spanish ends up in that category than this whole learn-Spanish-in-Mexico project could end up as a spectacular failure. Only time will tell. The experiment continues on Monday…
I spent most of the morning immersed in the study of cancer genomics. I’m starting to shift my emphasis from broad reading of background material to specific study of individual papers, trying to get a detailed understanding of the methods and experimental design elements that I want to emulate. I need to figure out ASAP what resources are missing from our lab and then either get them in the purchasing pipeline (if our budget allows) or start searching for other ways to get them (i.e. inter-institutional collaborations or extramural funding sources).
I spent the afternoon reviewing a paper I’m co-author on from my last job. I hated to spend work time on that, but it would be impossible to do at home with Enid around. The paper is pretty close to its final revision, and as it turned out I didn’t have many substantive comments to make. But as a co-author I still felt obligated to give it a thorough reading and make comments, even if they were just minor edits.
Enid finished her first week of school without any major problems, and is still reporting that she likes it. Unfortunately her preschool in Yountville is a tough act to follow. It was very well run with lots of good material resources, and the daily program included lots of free-play time and creative activities that were well suited to Enid’s skills and interests. Also she was something of a teachers pet there, owing to her advanced verbal abilities and adult-centric social tendencies. Here the educational approach seems to be quite different, with a more rigid structure, and of course Enid is no longer able to engage her teachers verbally the way she could in English. I worry that she may feel lonely and isolated in school, but she hasn’t complained. Anyway, it’s only the first week and presumably she will speak more Spanish as time goes by.
Lots of people have told us “Don’t worry! She’ll be speaking Spanish better than you in no time! They’re like sponges at that age”. But we aren’t convinced. Those people don’t know Enid. She is not all that sociable, especially with other kids, so she may not feel much incentive to speak Spanish. Plus she can be very stubborn about things she decides she DOESN’T want to do. If speaking Spanish ends up in that category than this whole learn-Spanish-in-Mexico project could end up as a spectacular failure. Only time will tell. The experiment continues on Monday…
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Continued cool, cloudy weather with occasional rain today. Is the summer heat gone for good? I doubt it, but I hope so.
Robin reports that Enid didn’t want to be dropped off at school the past few mornings. She dragged her feet about going in the door, said she didn’t want to go to school, etc. It’s nothing new though. Enid frequently displayed the same reluctance when we dropped her off at school in Yountville. Sometimes it was even worse, with screaming and crying. But then when we’d go pick her up at the end of the day she wouldn’t want to leave and it was clear that she really loved school. Her morning behavior doesn’t seem to reflect her true feelings about school, so I’m not too worried about it. But it’s a bummer for Robin, and a frustrating, depressing way to start each morning.
Our cátedra (me, Sean, Luis and José) met today to discuss our research goals. We agreed to narrow our focus to non-Hodgkins lymphomas, multiple myeloma and breast cancer. I suggested that there were five high-throughput genomic analysis methods we should consider trying to implement in our lab: microarray resequencing, microarray comparative genomic hybridization, microarray gene expression profiling, microarray methylation profiling, and microarray miRNA expression profiling. I think the last two would be really great to implement because they are fairly recent technologies, whereas the others have been around for quite a while, and people have already used them to examine various cancers pretty thoroughly. With the methylation profiling and (especially) miRNA profiling there’s still a chance to make a unique contribution. It seemed like my suggestions were fairly well received. Anyway, a “maybe” is as good as a “yes” for me and I’m going to press on with researching the methodologies and putting together a plan to implement them technically. I’ve only got a year to get something done here, so I need to get started.
Robin reports that Enid didn’t want to be dropped off at school the past few mornings. She dragged her feet about going in the door, said she didn’t want to go to school, etc. It’s nothing new though. Enid frequently displayed the same reluctance when we dropped her off at school in Yountville. Sometimes it was even worse, with screaming and crying. But then when we’d go pick her up at the end of the day she wouldn’t want to leave and it was clear that she really loved school. Her morning behavior doesn’t seem to reflect her true feelings about school, so I’m not too worried about it. But it’s a bummer for Robin, and a frustrating, depressing way to start each morning.
Our cátedra (me, Sean, Luis and José) met today to discuss our research goals. We agreed to narrow our focus to non-Hodgkins lymphomas, multiple myeloma and breast cancer. I suggested that there were five high-throughput genomic analysis methods we should consider trying to implement in our lab: microarray resequencing, microarray comparative genomic hybridization, microarray gene expression profiling, microarray methylation profiling, and microarray miRNA expression profiling. I think the last two would be really great to implement because they are fairly recent technologies, whereas the others have been around for quite a while, and people have already used them to examine various cancers pretty thoroughly. With the methylation profiling and (especially) miRNA profiling there’s still a chance to make a unique contribution. It seemed like my suggestions were fairly well received. Anyway, a “maybe” is as good as a “yes” for me and I’m going to press on with researching the methodologies and putting together a plan to implement them technically. I’ve only got a year to get something done here, so I need to get started.
Lo Que Mama Dice
Well, I suppose it is time for me to weigh in all on all this craziness. The thing is, it is so un-crazy. I wonder, how can it take so much time, effort and money to end up in some place so surprisingly similar? I suppose the obvious lessons are:
1. Where ever you go, there you are
2. Anytime you move, anywhere, it takes time, effort and money
3. Though I might not want to paint it, the world is small and getting smaller.
4. Especially in terms of the country next-door.
5. Monterrey is quite different than many other parts of Mexico.
I'll sum it up like this - We're living in Beverly Hills but everyone speaks Spanish and the sidewalks are broken.
Technically, we don't live in Monterrey. We live in San Pedro Garza Garcia, a separate municipality. But it is physically contiguous with Monterrey and in fact is more central to the heart of Monterrey than many parts of Monterrey itself. Though San Pedro Garza Garcia is the Beverly Hills, there are many communities (colonias) within Monterrey that are nice. It is said that there is a significant middle class in Monterrey. Now, I believe it.
In some respects, I wish we had ended up in a different area than San Pedro Garza Garcia. It is littered with places like HEB (Texas supermarket chain), GNC, Starbucks and countless high-end designer shops (Louis Vuitton, etc). There are lots of expensive furniture stores and I've seen several Porsche Cayenne driving around. What’s the point of being in Mexico? The parents of the children at Enid’s pre-school and dance class drive nicer cars than we do, wear better clothes than we do, and live in nicer houses than we do. It is just like being at home!
That said, there is still, of course, plenty of local color. It’s just not charming like I expected. In 1997 we were in the southern state of Chiapas for about 3 weeks. Tuxla Gutierrez, San Cristobal de las Casas, Palenque – these places are charming. I didn’t expect northern Mexico to be the same but I didn’t expect it to be so completely lacking.
Don’t get me wrong, it is a wonderful city. It is modern, extremely cultured and physically beautiful. But it is not charming.
Some of the things I like best about living in San Pedro Garza Garcia:
1. There is an amazing recreational pathway running the length of two of the major traffic arteries (perpendicular to each other). Probably a total of about 6 miles, one way. It is tree-lined with annuals planted at the intersections and truly a very pleasant respite from the city, despite the fact that it is literally in the middle of the street. It is very well used and at any given time on the weekend, or during mornings during the week, you will find scores of people out running or walking.
2. It is relatively easy to find things like organic milk, cheese, peanut butter, meat, etc. Often times, even the same brand as at home. No tofu yet though.
3. There are some great play parks.
4. Chipinque, a national park, is right up the street. Literally you drive 10-15 minutes south of our house and you are up in the mountains and fresh air. There are miles and miles of excellently maintained hiking trails and beautiful butterflies to look at. As with everywhere around here, there are also large public art installations just before the entrance (at intervals): a giant ant, a giant ladybug, a giant grasshopper and a giant centipede
One thing I suspected and which has turned out to be true is that the biggest difference for us is living in a big city. Well, and the fact that everyone Speaks Spanish. : )
Signing off for now – La Mama
1. Where ever you go, there you are
2. Anytime you move, anywhere, it takes time, effort and money
3. Though I might not want to paint it, the world is small and getting smaller.
4. Especially in terms of the country next-door.
5. Monterrey is quite different than many other parts of Mexico.
I'll sum it up like this - We're living in Beverly Hills but everyone speaks Spanish and the sidewalks are broken.
Technically, we don't live in Monterrey. We live in San Pedro Garza Garcia, a separate municipality. But it is physically contiguous with Monterrey and in fact is more central to the heart of Monterrey than many parts of Monterrey itself. Though San Pedro Garza Garcia is the Beverly Hills, there are many communities (colonias) within Monterrey that are nice. It is said that there is a significant middle class in Monterrey. Now, I believe it.
In some respects, I wish we had ended up in a different area than San Pedro Garza Garcia. It is littered with places like HEB (Texas supermarket chain), GNC, Starbucks and countless high-end designer shops (Louis Vuitton, etc). There are lots of expensive furniture stores and I've seen several Porsche Cayenne driving around. What’s the point of being in Mexico? The parents of the children at Enid’s pre-school and dance class drive nicer cars than we do, wear better clothes than we do, and live in nicer houses than we do. It is just like being at home!
That said, there is still, of course, plenty of local color. It’s just not charming like I expected. In 1997 we were in the southern state of Chiapas for about 3 weeks. Tuxla Gutierrez, San Cristobal de las Casas, Palenque – these places are charming. I didn’t expect northern Mexico to be the same but I didn’t expect it to be so completely lacking.
Don’t get me wrong, it is a wonderful city. It is modern, extremely cultured and physically beautiful. But it is not charming.
Some of the things I like best about living in San Pedro Garza Garcia:
1. There is an amazing recreational pathway running the length of two of the major traffic arteries (perpendicular to each other). Probably a total of about 6 miles, one way. It is tree-lined with annuals planted at the intersections and truly a very pleasant respite from the city, despite the fact that it is literally in the middle of the street. It is very well used and at any given time on the weekend, or during mornings during the week, you will find scores of people out running or walking.
2. It is relatively easy to find things like organic milk, cheese, peanut butter, meat, etc. Often times, even the same brand as at home. No tofu yet though.
3. There are some great play parks.
4. Chipinque, a national park, is right up the street. Literally you drive 10-15 minutes south of our house and you are up in the mountains and fresh air. There are miles and miles of excellently maintained hiking trails and beautiful butterflies to look at. As with everywhere around here, there are also large public art installations just before the entrance (at intervals): a giant ant, a giant ladybug, a giant grasshopper and a giant centipede
One thing I suspected and which has turned out to be true is that the biggest difference for us is living in a big city. Well, and the fact that everyone Speaks Spanish. : )
Signing off for now – La Mama
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
The weather continues to be cool and cloudy. The air has been clean and the mountains beautiful. Enid seems to be enjoying school. Yesterday she also had the first session of a dance class Robin enrolled her in. She seemed to enjoy that too.
I’ve been immersed in reading at work all week long, trying to get familiar with current cancer genomics. It’s interesting stuff, but all the hours of staring at fine print turn me into a zombie by the end of the day.
I’ve been immersed in reading at work all week long, trying to get familiar with current cancer genomics. It’s interesting stuff, but all the hours of staring at fine print turn me into a zombie by the end of the day.
Monday, August 27, 2007
After more than a year of Herculean efforts and monumental sacrifices, we finally accomplished our goal. Today was Enid’s first day of school. In Spanish! By both Enid’s report and her teacher’s report it apparently went well. It’s early days of course, but maybe this will all prove to be worth the effort in the end, and she’ll learn to speak Spanish while we’re here.
The weekend was a nice mix of playing with Enid and getting things done around the house (mostly fixing minor problems with the apartment). The weather was a little cooler than it has been, with occasional rain. The only bad part of the weekend was that Enid fell asleep yesterday at 5pm. We probably should have woken her up immediately, but we took a gamble that maybe she’d sleep right on through until morning. Nope. She woke up at 8pm and we didn’t get her back to sleep until after 11pm. I suppose that’s what we get for being greedy.
The weekend was a nice mix of playing with Enid and getting things done around the house (mostly fixing minor problems with the apartment). The weather was a little cooler than it has been, with occasional rain. The only bad part of the weekend was that Enid fell asleep yesterday at 5pm. We probably should have woken her up immediately, but we took a gamble that maybe she’d sleep right on through until morning. Nope. She woke up at 8pm and we didn’t get her back to sleep until after 11pm. I suppose that’s what we get for being greedy.
Friday, August 24, 2007
It was a beautiful day in Monterrey. An overnight rainfall cleaned the air, and a steady breeze kept it clear all day. The mountains are incredibly scenic on days like today.
I spent the morning helping some young women in the lab resolve problems they were having with RNA extraction. Working together we were able to determine that the real problem wasn’t with their extraction method but with their spectrophotometric quantification, i.e. they were getting plenty of RNA but didn’t know it because they weren’t measuring it correctly.
In the afternoon I drove over to the main campus and turned in all the paperwork to register my domicile with the INM. Now all I should need to do is make one more trip over there to sign the paperwork after it’s prepared. Also it looks like the university will pay the lawyer’s fees, which is nice.
One sad thing that happened today was that on the way home from the main campus I passed an accident scene where a motorcycle cop had gone down in the westbound lanes of Morones Prieto. They were moving him onto a stretcher to get him into an ambulance. It looked like he was moving, so he was probably okay, but it made me sad to think how suddenly and completely his life had just been messed up, and that he probably has a wife and children who are going to get a call telling them their father is hurt and in the hospital. There are so many car accidents here, it’s ridiculous. You see them every day. And most of them are totally unnecessary. If the roads and signage were designed properly and people didn’t drive like such maniacs a lot of deaths and injuries could be avoided.
That said, I have to admit that the over-the-top road conditions add a crazy energy to the urban scene here, one that is characteristically latin-american. I never feel more like I’m in Mexico than when I’m driving.
I spent the morning helping some young women in the lab resolve problems they were having with RNA extraction. Working together we were able to determine that the real problem wasn’t with their extraction method but with their spectrophotometric quantification, i.e. they were getting plenty of RNA but didn’t know it because they weren’t measuring it correctly.
In the afternoon I drove over to the main campus and turned in all the paperwork to register my domicile with the INM. Now all I should need to do is make one more trip over there to sign the paperwork after it’s prepared. Also it looks like the university will pay the lawyer’s fees, which is nice.
One sad thing that happened today was that on the way home from the main campus I passed an accident scene where a motorcycle cop had gone down in the westbound lanes of Morones Prieto. They were moving him onto a stretcher to get him into an ambulance. It looked like he was moving, so he was probably okay, but it made me sad to think how suddenly and completely his life had just been messed up, and that he probably has a wife and children who are going to get a call telling them their father is hurt and in the hospital. There are so many car accidents here, it’s ridiculous. You see them every day. And most of them are totally unnecessary. If the roads and signage were designed properly and people didn’t drive like such maniacs a lot of deaths and injuries could be avoided.
That said, I have to admit that the over-the-top road conditions add a crazy energy to the urban scene here, one that is characteristically latin-american. I never feel more like I’m in Mexico than when I’m driving.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
My second (and last) lecture went well. One student even came up after class and said she liked the way I taught and wanted to know if I was teaching any other courses. Maybe she was just sucking up, but I felt gratified.
Robin and Enid woke up early and went over to the main campus with me. They had breakfast there and explored while I taught. I figured Robin would want to see the campus, but to get Enid interested I told her there were ducks and deer on campus that she’d be able to see (there are). Unfortunately she wasn’t in a very good mood (probably from being woken up too early) and didn’t seem to enjoy the visit very much. “This is just about a lot of walking!” she said.
After I finished teaching we went over to the CIAP building and Robin and Enid played outside while I met with a lawyer there who helps the students and employees with immigration issues. I think I got the ball rolling on registering my domicile and also on getting Robin and Enid their FM3 visas.
Hector, the lawyer, told me that among the things I’d need to do the domicile registration was more photos (three frontal, two right profile). And of course Robin and Enid will need them for their FM3s, plus Enid needs three photos for her school enrollment. So we walked over to a place off campus that does passport photos and we all got photographed (another $35 lost to the black hole of immigration paperwork). Then Robin and Enid dropped me off back at the med school and went home. I spent the rest of the day immersed in reading about cancer genomics.
About the time I was starting to think about catching the bus home it clouded up and started to rain. Hard. Eventually it slowed down though, and I made a break for home while it was just drizzling. I managed to arrive home without getting rained on too much, but the streets were quite flooded by then so my feet got soaked. Crossing Morones Prieto was even more exciting than usual because tonight it was not only a river of cars but a river of water too,
Enid and Robin have an appointment at Kinder Allegro tomorrow to meet Enid’s new teacher. Then on Monday school starts. Not a moment too soon I’d say. Enid has been out of school since mid-July, and we’ve been her sole playmates 24/7 for most of that time. She really needs some fresh company, and we really need a break. Particularly Robin, who has been on duty all day long M-F for the last two weeks while I’ve been at work.
Robin and Enid woke up early and went over to the main campus with me. They had breakfast there and explored while I taught. I figured Robin would want to see the campus, but to get Enid interested I told her there were ducks and deer on campus that she’d be able to see (there are). Unfortunately she wasn’t in a very good mood (probably from being woken up too early) and didn’t seem to enjoy the visit very much. “This is just about a lot of walking!” she said.
After I finished teaching we went over to the CIAP building and Robin and Enid played outside while I met with a lawyer there who helps the students and employees with immigration issues. I think I got the ball rolling on registering my domicile and also on getting Robin and Enid their FM3 visas.
Hector, the lawyer, told me that among the things I’d need to do the domicile registration was more photos (three frontal, two right profile). And of course Robin and Enid will need them for their FM3s, plus Enid needs three photos for her school enrollment. So we walked over to a place off campus that does passport photos and we all got photographed (another $35 lost to the black hole of immigration paperwork). Then Robin and Enid dropped me off back at the med school and went home. I spent the rest of the day immersed in reading about cancer genomics.
About the time I was starting to think about catching the bus home it clouded up and started to rain. Hard. Eventually it slowed down though, and I made a break for home while it was just drizzling. I managed to arrive home without getting rained on too much, but the streets were quite flooded by then so my feet got soaked. Crossing Morones Prieto was even more exciting than usual because tonight it was not only a river of cars but a river of water too,
Enid and Robin have an appointment at Kinder Allegro tomorrow to meet Enid’s new teacher. Then on Monday school starts. Not a moment too soon I’d say. Enid has been out of school since mid-July, and we’ve been her sole playmates 24/7 for most of that time. She really needs some fresh company, and we really need a break. Particularly Robin, who has been on duty all day long M-F for the last two weeks while I’ve been at work.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
The bus commute to and from the medical school seems to work fine. Routes 202 and 227 do the trick and come by every few minutes. Route 126 also works. The afternoon commute is a little more intense because the traffic is heavier and the bus drops me off on the wrong side of Avenida Morones Prieto where there’s no pedestrian bridge anywhere nearby. That means I have to sprint across several lanes of traffic moving at near freeway speeds. It’s a little dicey, but there’s a grassy median strip in the middle that actually breaks it up into two sprints, so it’s not that bad. I usually have to wait a few minutes for a gap in the traffic, so crossing Morones Prieto actually takes as long as the bus ride itself. But it still only takes me about half an hour to get home, so that's not bad. And I get a little exercise, which I need.
My transcription lecture went fine today too, or at least as well as can be expected given that I had to use someone else’s slides. It was actually kind of fun to teach, mostly because I spent so much time preparing. I’m glad I only have to teach one more lecture though (on Thursday) because I really need to spend more time on other things. I have a lot of reading I need to do to get up to speed on cancer and cancer genomics.
While I was on campus I walked over to the International Programs office and was finally able to meet with Claudia, the woman who was in charge of helping me get my visa. She gave me the contact information for the university lawyers that I need to talk to about registering my domicile with the INM, and also about changing Robin and Enid’s immigration status. They are here on tourist visas now, but they should be eligible for FM3 visas as my economic dependents. It would be nice for them to have FM3s because then they (like me) would be eligible to use the IMSS (Mexican social security) medical system for free.
My transcription lecture went fine today too, or at least as well as can be expected given that I had to use someone else’s slides. It was actually kind of fun to teach, mostly because I spent so much time preparing. I’m glad I only have to teach one more lecture though (on Thursday) because I really need to spend more time on other things. I have a lot of reading I need to do to get up to speed on cancer and cancer genomics.
While I was on campus I walked over to the International Programs office and was finally able to meet with Claudia, the woman who was in charge of helping me get my visa. She gave me the contact information for the university lawyers that I need to talk to about registering my domicile with the INM, and also about changing Robin and Enid’s immigration status. They are here on tourist visas now, but they should be eligible for FM3 visas as my economic dependents. It would be nice for them to have FM3s because then they (like me) would be eligible to use the IMSS (Mexican social security) medical system for free.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Wrapping up a fairly relaxing weekend. Robin worked on some housecleaning chores part of the day yesterday while I played with Enid. I built her a new spaceship out of our empty cardboard moving boxes, to replace the one we had to leave behind in Yountville. This one is even better than the first one. It has a side-mounted hatch so she can get in and out alone (the first one had the hatch on top so we had to lift her in and out). It also has a foam backrest and a supply compartment she can access from inside. Hopefully she’ll take many long journeys to other planets in it, as she did with the one in Yountville.
I also took some time yesterday to walk over to Avenida Morones Prieto to investigate how I can get to work and back on my own (Robin and Enid have been dropping me off so far). Alas, it doesn’t appear that I can afford to buy a motor scooter. I probably could afford a bicycle, but the route looks a little dicey for that- lots of high speed traffic and a complex highway interchange to deal with. I could probably walk to work in a reasonable amount of time, but it would be a very unpleasant walk with all the noisy traffic on Morones Prieto. Therefore I’m thinking the best option is the bus. It took me about 15 minutes to walk down to Morones Prieto where the bus stop is located. So thirty minutes a day transit time to and from the bus stop. That’s not bad. The buses appear to cost 7 pesos a ride, so it’ll be about $1.30 a day for my commute. That’s reasonable. The bus ride itself should only be about 5 minutes each way, maybe 10 if the traffic is quite heavy. The only uncertainty is how often the buses come and which bus to take. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any easy way to find that out from the comfort of home. There’s no website with downloadable maps and schedules like you’d find in the U.S.A. The bus stops don’t even have signs saying which routes stop there. So I’m just going to have to wait at the bus stop and see what I can figure out. I’ll probably give it a try tomorrow. Hopefully I won’t end up in Oaxaca!
Today we went to Parque Chipinque, which is located on the slopes of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the mountain range that forms the southern boundary of Monterrey. It was incredible. Lots of well-maintained hiking trails, plenty of parking at the visitor’s center, only 30 pesos for admission, and best of all it’s a15 minute drive from our house. Fifteen minutes and we were hiking in a forest! I couldn’t believe it. I think we’ll be making plenty of weekend trips there. Enid did a great job hiking on the trails, which were mostly quite steep since the park is on a mountainside. We saw tons of butterflies, including some really colorful, exotic-looking ones. I think it was just what we all needed after spending the last 18 days dealing with the hustle and bustle of a big, unfamiliar city.
I also took some time yesterday to walk over to Avenida Morones Prieto to investigate how I can get to work and back on my own (Robin and Enid have been dropping me off so far). Alas, it doesn’t appear that I can afford to buy a motor scooter. I probably could afford a bicycle, but the route looks a little dicey for that- lots of high speed traffic and a complex highway interchange to deal with. I could probably walk to work in a reasonable amount of time, but it would be a very unpleasant walk with all the noisy traffic on Morones Prieto. Therefore I’m thinking the best option is the bus. It took me about 15 minutes to walk down to Morones Prieto where the bus stop is located. So thirty minutes a day transit time to and from the bus stop. That’s not bad. The buses appear to cost 7 pesos a ride, so it’ll be about $1.30 a day for my commute. That’s reasonable. The bus ride itself should only be about 5 minutes each way, maybe 10 if the traffic is quite heavy. The only uncertainty is how often the buses come and which bus to take. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any easy way to find that out from the comfort of home. There’s no website with downloadable maps and schedules like you’d find in the U.S.A. The bus stops don’t even have signs saying which routes stop there. So I’m just going to have to wait at the bus stop and see what I can figure out. I’ll probably give it a try tomorrow. Hopefully I won’t end up in Oaxaca!
Today we went to Parque Chipinque, which is located on the slopes of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the mountain range that forms the southern boundary of Monterrey. It was incredible. Lots of well-maintained hiking trails, plenty of parking at the visitor’s center, only 30 pesos for admission, and best of all it’s a15 minute drive from our house. Fifteen minutes and we were hiking in a forest! I couldn’t believe it. I think we’ll be making plenty of weekend trips there. Enid did a great job hiking on the trails, which were mostly quite steep since the park is on a mountainside. We saw tons of butterflies, including some really colorful, exotic-looking ones. I think it was just what we all needed after spending the last 18 days dealing with the hustle and bustle of a big, unfamiliar city.
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