long post to make up for mis faltas

Sorry for the long time, no update thing. Anyways, I've done a lot of cool stuff since the "party weekend." Don't worry, I haven't been recovering this whole time. I have been busy, however.

During carnival, which is like when the city goes crazy and is a big party for a week and school is canceled, I actually took the opportunity to go to San Cristobal de las Casas, which is in Chiapas. The city is considered a Pueblo Mágico, and I could not agree more. I went to visit my friend from Michigan, Andrea, who had just moved there and I met her roommates, who are also really nice. She had just gotten a job at a Lebanese restaurant, so I mostly explored the city myself on foot during the day. It was a lot of fun - there are lots of churches which are arquitecturally unique to Chiapas due to the mixing of indigenous and christian religions.

There is a great artisan market there - and it's dirt cheap! A lot of Chiapaneca women come to Mérida to sell stuff and probably do with moderate success. However, the journey about doubles the price. In San Cristobal I was able to pick up a pretty nice leather messanger bag and knitted wool hoodie for about $400 MX. Both seem like they're super high quality to me. In Mérida, the same bag is often hawked for $550 MX, and not from actual street vendors but from tourist-oriented souvenir shops. The fact that I haven't seen many Chiapaneca women selling them in Mérida tells me one thing - that people go down to Chiapas, buy the goods, and then bring them back up here to sell at 2-3 times the price down there.

When I was in San Cristobal, I felt guilty haggling with people. The fact is that the differene in price I got on the items wasn't that much to me, and even the asking price was a pretty good deal for what I was buying. I never pushed very hard, and mostly negotiated just to go through the motions. Buying stuff in bulk, I imagine that the souvenir middlemen of Mérida make a killing. Needless to say, not to the benefit of the actual producers of the products.

I'm having one of those "ohmigod the structure of the world economy really needs to change in order for people to have equal opportunities in life" moments. Since this trip, I've been on the lookout for manifestations of structural inequality, both the causes and the consequences. There are a quite a few when one is looking.

For example - the women who come to Mérida from Chiapas to sell stuff. Why do they do it? I guess I should ask them to really know - maybe it's some sort of employment circuit that every member of some sort of artisnal co-op does every so often. I'm guessing not, though. That means shouldering the cost of travel, lodging, moving a lot of products with you, and normally bringing children. I'm sure they've perfected their system of doing this, but how much can it benefit them? Even if it does result in economic benefits, it undoubtedly perpetuates structural inequality. For example, the children aren't in school. By the time they grow up, they'll be ready to work in the artisnal market, but won't have many other opportunities. However, the number of kids which come of age into this situation can only be increasing - as I said, the women in Mérida often have 5 kids with them, and the same was true in San Cristobal.

Of course, the Mexican educational system is no gaurantee of greater opportunities either. Again, I haven't done actual research into this, but it seems like every so often you have to take a test which determines if you keep going to school. If you fail, you're out of the system. I've been told that the Mexican educational system is incredibly corrupt, and while this testing process may be a great way to trim budgets, it does little to give opportunity to those who don't show "potential." Talk about high pressure and psychological assault. A friend of mine who works making copies in the facultad is pretty much done with school and working a dead end job. I'm really curious how much she makes but I'm afraid of asking. Again, what else is there to do when the system throws you out on the street? I really think someone needs to write a book like "Nickeled and Dimed" but about other countries and structural inequality. Maybe I will try to do this later.

But back to what I did in San Cristobal. One day I went to San Jan Chomula, where I did not hear a single person speaking Spanish unless I first spoke it to them. Everyone was speaking an indigenous language, the name of which I can't remember. I couldn't take my camera there, because photo taking has a bad rap - of stealing the subject's soul. Apparently tourists have been badly beaten because of this. Anyways, the carnival was pretty interesting. Men wore specific costumes and took smallish bulls around the plaza and controlled them with ropes held by about 20 men in total. Other men tried to jump on the bull and ride it. They were not costumed, and most appeared to be teenagers or early 20 somethings, or moderately intoxicated. Women pretty much just watched. So did I, for about three hours. It was very entertaining, and I didn't even see anyone get seriously hurt!

Later that night, Andrea and her roommates and I met a really nice, although probably quite psychologically insecure middle aged American tourist named Edward. He took us out to drinks at the Lebanese restaurant where Andrea was working. I drank about 6 Araks, which is a Turkish anise liquor. Yum! Ed's treat - double yum! Afterwards we went to some other places and kept partying and Ed went home. I got tired of him pretty early in the evening when his inner lecher emerged. He said he wanted to come to this canyon with us, but thankfully didn't answer his phone in the morning.

The following day, I dragged Andrea out of bed kicking and screaming (not literally, but it took a little work on my part) to go to the Cañon del Sumidero, a really cool canyon close to San Cristobal with rock faces up to 1 km. It was truly breathtaking; one view from within the canyon is the official seal of the state of Chiapas. There were animals, too. A few times we passed by an entrapment - my unofficial word for where currents take floating trash never to escape. Of the maybe twelve people in our boat, Andrea and I were the only ones who seemed to acknowledge the trash.

Back in Mérida, I rested for quite a while - I couldn't sleep during the overnight 14 hour bus ride back. Bummer. However, later in the weekend I went to Celestún, where there is a cool ecological reserve with about 15,000 flamingoes you can observe from a moderate distance. Even though I was super tired still, I figured it was worth it to go when friends were going rather than trying to go later and maybe having to pay a lot more for the boat. Interesting fact - the flamingoes go there to eat mosquito larvae. Imagine how many larvae there must be to feed that many flamingoes. Now imagine what that might smell like. Yuck. But it was still worth it. On both boat trips, the wind rushing through my hair and around my body was sufficient to wake me up.

Since then there has been little of note, especially because I've been so busy with homework and school actually. Test tomorrow, presentation Tuesday, and I need to think about papers now, too. The one thing I would mention is that today I went to see this Picasso exhibit in the centro cultural here. It was SO great and confirmed Picasso as one of my favorite artists ever. I saw a lot of other ideas coming from him through these drawings that don't really make it into big museums. The works were pretty much all drawings or black and white paintings spanning a lot of his career, from 1905 to 1955ish. The cool thing was seeing him approach the same subject in different ways and in varying degrees of what you'd think of abstractness and bodily distortion. If you ever get the chance to see work by Picasso that's not his most famous stuff, I'd highly recommend it.

The crazy thing, though: every room in this exhibit was guarded by multiple police wearing bulletproof vests and carying either shotguns or automatic weapons. I wonder what they think their guns are protecting...? Like, if someone is going to destroy the art, will a barrage of bullets in their direction actually do less damage? I doubt it. I thought the metal detector and bag inspection were sufficient.

Now, back to work.

Note: something weird is afoot with blogger and I can't post any photos or links right now. Maybe I will do that later in either this or another post.

party weekend

I had a party oriented weekend last weekend. The facultad threw some sort of valentines day party, the Mexican name of (día de amor y amistad) also inclues friendship, which is nice. It was nice, because I met a lot of Mexicans. Only at Grinnell parties have I seen as much free booze everywhere, and if there's one thing I cannot resist it is someone very friendly shoving a bottle or cup in my face. In a world like that, it's surprisingly easy to make friends.

As I said, I met a lot of kids, most of which are in my Functionalism and Structuralism class. After the official facultad party ended we all hopped on a bus to the centro and tried to go to the facultad de arqitectura party only to learn that they're tight-asses and wouldn't let anyone in (???). This was a stark contrast to the communal atmosphere which I had just left. No matter, the festivities continued in a few different local watering-holes.

The following evening, I visited a club again. It was a friend's birthday. This time, I unfortunately had less fun. A few things I learned about these pay to get in and then drink as much as you can for free clubs contributed to my ambiguous mood. First, the alcohol they serve is lower quality, possibly akin to rubbing alcohol. The sad thing is that non-ethanol alcohol (vs. ethanol, which we use both for drinking and biofuel)is more toxic to the human body and less intoxicating. We got a table, and a free bottle of vodka, which claimed to be Smirnoff but smelled more like rubbing alcohol. Seconly, some clubs put ether in the ice they give to Americans, or just simply drug them so that local scam artists will be able to get them to go home with them and rob them. Fortunately, this didn't happen to me, but the suspicious liquor was enough to make me keep my distance, and not drink to elevation, as many of my peers did.

terrifying food products of Mexico #1

During my time in Mexico, I've been exposed to many new foods. This is pretty exciting for a foodie such as myself, and one of the things I was most excited about before coming here. The Yucatán itself offers a palatte distinct from most of México, and certainly distinct from Mexican food that's common in the US.

While the culinary aspect of my journey continues to be a source of great pleasure, there are times when certain food products terrify me. So far, I would say these things are always seperate from "traditional" Yucatecan foods, which are pretty much some sort of assembly of whole foods. What's terrifying are things with less-than-noble origins. In honor of these food products, I've decided to start a series on "terrifying food products of Mexico." This is the first entry in that series.

It's Guten! Guten is some sort of processed meat product which makes me think of potted-meat-food-product (aka Spam) in a plastic baggie. Not only does Guten come with two kinds of meat (beef and chicken) it also has a boatload of gluten thrown in to make it stick together and a vertiable cocktail of preservatives, salt, and probably MSG. Guten also comes cooked, so you don't have to bother with that pesky little requirement for eating meat. "Just add your special touch," it says. What it doesn't say - "we'll be sure to neutralize it with this flavorless cardboard, unless you add so much salt that you can't taste anything else anyways."

paradiso

Well, that's not actually how you say "paradise" in Spanish, but I wanted to make sure non-Spanish speakers got the point. Well, I had a pretty good weekend. As I mentioned before, I went to Isla Mujeres, a tiny little island in the Caribbean, and the easternmost point of Mexico. Yes, I actually took this picture there.

A few friends took off from Mérida at midnight Thursday and got to the Isla around 5 AM Friday. We found a hotel room, took a nap, and then hit the beach. Unfortunately, it was kind of chilly, so I went and rented a moped. Megan and I promptly cruised to the southernmost point of the island and back. Riding around on one of those mopeds is a lot of fun. It makes me think about my transportation in the future. I'm concerned that I actually will have to procure some sort of motorized transport to deal with life in the bay area. Should it be one of those, or maybe a motorcycle? Time will tell.

Then at night we went out to a cool bar in a hostel with lots of other young travelers. I forgot that I'm actually a student - a luxury I rarely experienced at Grinnell. There was a great band playing in that Spanish style reminiscent of the Gipsy Kings. I really need to learn to play guitar like this.

The following day there was more moped crusing to go to the TortuGranja (turtle farm). For a few pesos we went to see some sea turtles that this government conservation project helps grow up so they're not eaten or poached as babies. I love those animals. Then, more lounging on the beach, drank a few beers, doing nothing but earning a minor sunburn.

Upon return, all I could think about is how long it seemed like I was gone from Mérida - at least a week. In reality, about 3 days. It is so nice to not have class on Friday. My life is pretty full of these experiences in which I totally forget about other parts of my life that aren't requiring my current attention. When I get back to "real life" it seems foreign and surreal. On the way back, Mallory and I were waiting for the bus to get back to our neighborhood. All I could think about is my disorientation in Mérida, things to do, busses to catch, stuff to carry, hunger to deal with. Suddenly, stuff that is a part of my life becomes a chore to deal with rather than just what I'm doing. I think I can do better than this mindset if I focus on it.

Anyways, the island was fairly touristy - it is right next to Cancun. But it was nice because it was not gawdy either. Everything appeared to be a small business rather than a chain, although the t-shirts were certainly mass-produced. Sometimes I feel uncomfortable being a tourist, but other times I just bask the hedonistic glory. Contradictions such as this will probably never resolve themselves. I just think how tourism is really a development trap which leads to over-abundance of crappy jobs for locals. But, the Mexicans we met in a bar all said they really like the tourists that visit their island.

Now I'm back in Mérida, and have to get back to "real life," if such a thing exists. For now, I'll just be looking off of my island.

viaje - Isla Mujeres

Tonight I'm going to Isla Mujeres and staying until Sunday. I'm excited about that.

Also, today, out of the blue, I got a big green salad for part of my lunch. Yum! My friend Michael coined the term "kale withdrawals" to describe the lack of vegetable consumption in Mexico relative to his life in the US. I could not agree more. Sure, we had lettuce, but it was pretty hearty and green, even though not kale or other heartier leaf. Horray!

hoofin'

I'm moving to Uptown Minneapolis this Saturday morning. I have not yet purchased my bus pass.

clubbing, oh my god!

I finally went out to a club here. I danced furiously until about 3 AM. This place is crazy, and wasn't nearly as expensive and "not-actually-mind-kind-of-place,-sorry" as I thought it would be. Here's what happened: Some friends met me on a corner after my dinner and we went in a taxi to the club. The cab had a video screen and when we told the driver where to take us, he got excited and put in a DVD which played Yeah! and cranked up the system. Then we got there, and went straight to the front of the line. Within 5 minutes we were in, and I had to pay about 150 pesos. Women, on the other hand, about 60. This seemed like a whole hell of a lot, but then when we get upstairs I learn that it includes open bar service. And I mean, OPEN bar. Like, they will give you a fucking bottle of vodka and a bottle of cola, and/or mineral water if you ask. It was really busy, but one could acquire speedy service by just putting 5 pesos in a cup while the bartenders were looking. Not too bad.

Anyways, it was like a big and crowded party. Like, in an actual club setting. Weird, for me. They must have about a zillion dollar air conditioning system, because even though the place was packed it stayed pretty cool. I danced with friends, and then headed home when we started breaking a sweat, and watched about half an episode of Law and Order.

I would probably even go back. I didn't think I would enjoy myself as much as I did.