Wanderlusting - Story

nuoveau riche en el DF

Brook — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:03:44 +0000

Last night I had another opportunity to go to a party with Mexico City's upper crust (ie really fucking rich). I can't say for sure that this family was nouveau riche but all the signs were there. They have a tire business in LA and a house in the new-richest neighborhood in el DF. The party was in the jardin but I went in the house and it was like an 80s movie about rich people- marble, lion heads, mirror walls, the whole nine. Even a maid in an all-white uniform. I can't even tell you what an asshole I felt like asking her how her night was going, half-drunk and clacking through on stilettos. I kind of love and kind of hate going to those kind of parties.

Men (and me) in Mexico

Brook — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:33:58 +0000

I went for a run today, and then went to the grocery store after the park. While I was walking home from the grocery store, carrying my groceries, I got cat-called 3 or 4 times. I was wearing head phones so I didn't know what they were saying but I could see them. Usually In a walk to of from somewhere I will get one on average, and delivery trucks with two men in them are almost a guarantee-- maybe because they aren't in their own car, they are bored, and they have a buddy to back them up so they feel more bold. This time it was two grocery store employees together, two pairs in delivery trucks, and then the one that inspired me to write this post.

Cuidame virgincita

Brook — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:49:07 +0000

Although anything with the virgin Mary screams Most Mexican Moment to me, I think this story is extra special. This evening when I got home from work, one of my old spinster landladies invited me in to see the candles she paints and sells. She paints mostly flowers but she also does the major candles for masses, and she does the work for free for two nunnery cathedrals.

Payaso Funeral

Brook — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:45:01 +0000

Hello from Mexico, friends.

Last night I saw a movie with a few friends, and one guy told us about his aunt's funeral the day before. His aunt was relatively young, and died suddenly. Here in Mexico they have a service immediately and it goes all night. They often have a mass several days or weeks later for the dead person.

How would you like to get to where you are going?

HeatherFife — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 09:00:57 +0000

* stand in an un air-conditioned totally crowded subway for 30 minutes in Cairo everyday twice a day (during Ramadahn)?\n* take a nice taxi but pay 10 times more than you would for a deliicous dinner for 10 people and their mother's twice a day?\n* dog sled in Alaska for an hour but with no gloves or proper warm clothes?\n* be strapped to the top of a truck along with the goats on a curvy road in the Andes of Peru?\n* back of a motorcylce in Vietnam with no helmet and a drunk driver leading the way?\n

El Ojo del Agua

Brook — Thu, 11 May 2006 20:34:20 +0000

Last night I went to a spring to swim which is called El Ojo del Agua. I went with a lady I work with (the one who got arrested, and also the one who gave me some illegal giant tortoise eggs to eat--Not a good person), her daughters, the doctor and a drunk aunt. She was kind of funny, my age and stumbling around. We chatted about love and drank beers in the car. She is dating a married soldier from Oaxaca city and he comes and visits here every few weekends. There were millions of kinds of bugs there, one beetle was all over the bathroom (there was a salamander in there too) and one of the little beetles was in the toilet swimming around, and I thought to myself, there is HIS ojo del agua!

Sometimes you think you are understanding everything, but you don't understand anything

HeatherFife — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 21:35:38 +0000

My Chinese cooking teacher told me there was store in town that you could buy shoes woman used to wear when they had bound feet and they had a history of bound feet in all of the different dynasties with pictures. So today it was pouring rain (winter officially began yesterday I think) and I dragged the other foreign teacher into town with me to check out this shoe store/museum. After taking the bus and asking a million people where this shoe place was—we found it! And guess what, it was just a really big shoe store.

I have no idea where the place she was talking about was. I am pretty sure that we were at the place she said to go, and the other teacher asked me, “So what exactly did she tell you this was?” When I told her what I thought she said it was, she asked, “Did she tell you this all in Chinese or English?” I said “Chinese.” And then I kind of figured out my Chinese must be really horrible! I completely misunderstood her. How can you think you are having a discussion about something but in fact you are talking about completely other things? I guess I misunderstood her. Well we still found a big shoe store and even though China is sometimes not a slave to fashion I think China has some really cool shoes! After looking at shoes we explored some of the markets around town, you can buy live turtles for soup and all sorts of live animal and sea creatures are crawling around everywhere.

Visiting Revolutionary Sites

HeatherFife — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 21:12:51 +0000

Chinese Students and Military

North Cackalacka UPOC Style

greg — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 03:51:23 +0000

We left on Friday afternoon at 6:00 which was UPOC ontime plus an hour. Meeting at 4:00 usually means we leave at UPOC ontime 5:00, but Friday was particularly slow for us. The cast of characters for this trip was Martin O'Malley in his outdoors debut since he went into MCAT studying hibernation, Tico Gangulee showing up for another round of "getting really high" on rock for his usual adrenalin rush, Iris Antes back for more zany German one-liners, the ever lovable Liz Caffrey as the only person who likes the same music as Marty, and myself, Greg Kneser, as the guy who lost his penis. We knew that the trip was going to be good at 2:00 that afternoon when Marty and I picked up our van from National: Rastro.

Noticias de la Maestra Gringa

Brook — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 19:51:04 +0000

I just heard Travis is trapped in a civil war in Bolivia. What is going on in this crazy messed up world! Also i hate my boss i mean i ha-ate him, the Canadian. Also Roommie Stephanie's mom is here (She's Chicana and speaks Spanish) and she threatened the boss that Steph was not coming back after Xmas so we will see what happens. Her class really is bad; I don't know whether I am with her or I think that she is exaggerating but even her mom thinks that it is terrible and her mom teaches special ed. That is one hellion class.

PINCHING PESOS: I have been working a lot, doing my extra classes which is good because it is extra money for traveling but bad because i don't have any spare time. and I am starting to HATE rich Mexicans. They have so many servants, body guards, drivers, maids, and nannys and live in these totally unbelievable houses. All the skinny, beautiful moms do is sit around with their Louis Vuittons and YSL bags and talk trash about other moms and the teachers at my school, they are always pumping me for information about teachers and hinting that they have heard rumors about me and Stephanie out at the bars. We are totally well-known, one of the other teachers told us an eligible bachelor friend of hers had heard about us and wants to meet us, so we are invited to his house for dinner.