February 28
If I
could call a country my second home, it surely would be Mexico. The city where
I feel most at home is, of course, Monterrey, where I lived. Unfortunately, I
won't have the chance to go there on this trip--or even my next trip, which is
for a wedding--but I love to be back in Mexico, even if it's Mexico City.
I
regret to say that I didn't venture out too far on Thursday when I arrived. I
had some work emails to catch up on for one, but furthermore, the sheer size of
Mexico City was a little overwhelming, and I felt that if I just started
walking around, I might get lost! I only really went outside for dinner with my
work colleagues, where were accosted by street vendors while seated outdoors.
One of them was a little kid, maybe only about 5 at the most. He was the cutest
kid, plopped his elbows down on your table trying to sell gum and other
candies, while announcing the gum flavours with a toothless smile--except for
in my case, where he whispered them into my ear. We said no several times, but
he came back a second time, and then we had to give in. Too irresistable!
The
next day, I felt a little more courageous, realising that the hotel I'm at is
well-known and that if I got lost, someone could point me in the right direction.
So I just started walking to see where it would take me, and I ended up in this
part of town where, although close to the hotel, was pretty much more of the
local scene, a local grocery store, a local ice cream store, taco restaurants,
places like that. I bought some home-grown Mexican coffee at a place, most of
which came from Chiapas. It's not labelled, so let's see if I can get it
through customs--both the US and Canada! I always want to buy locally grown
coffee ever since I got some from a market in Malaysia that's only available in
the markets and has no labels but is one of the best coffees I've ever tasted.
It was the least bitter coffee I think I'd ever had such that I could happily
drink it black! Anyway, it was an exciting discovery, and I was quite happy to
have found it, especially when I discovered I could get guanabana (soursop) ice
cream there.
Today
is my last day here, as I leave quite early tomorrow morning to return to
Canada, nothwithstanding a long layover in San Francisco that my colleague and
I chose so we could see some sights. I've never been there before, and one of
the people I met and made friends with while on the road has graciously agreed
to take us around town for the day, so I'm looking forward to that and am
hoping that somehow, the 90% chance of rain they're predicting will somehow be
reduced! As for today, I won't get to see too much more of the city because our
reception is today, and a lot of the day will be taken up by that, but I'll
have a little chance to go out and get another ice cream or horchata, which I
also had yesterday :o) Can't help but love Mexico, a beautiful country with
beautiful people--just stay away from the border towns right now with all the
drug-related violence!
February 24
My
mom's picture below is so beautiful, I wish it could remain at the top of my
blog permanently and have all my blog entries somehow go below!
In
any case, it's about time I had a new entry, but of course, this is my first
trip for work since last fall. My arrival in Miami was not without incident,
something that surprises and alarms me less and less these days as I continue
to learn that strange happenings are the norm in my life. The flight from
Edmonton to Chicago was interesting. I ended up being seated next to a
professor from Virginia Tech who is in agriculture but is a geneticist by
trade, and he was telling me all kinds of interesting stories, such as in the
smaller type plane that we were flying (I can't remember the make/model!), once
the wheels go out for the landing, the plane lands in 2mins 40sec. We timed it,
and he was right on the nose! He said in larger craft such as Boeing 737s, they
have 3mins and 40sec until landing after the wheels come out. He also told me
he had finished his PhD 2 years after Watson and Crick discovered the double
helix structure of DNA, and I just think that must have been so exciting to
have been doing research in an area in which a huge discovery was made. I don't
know who this guy is as he never gave me his name, but he travels all over the
world and has even been involved in some aspects of government policy as a
result of his own work, so he must be someone very well-known and respected in
his field.
The
next leg was delayed by a passenger who was supposed to be on our flight but
got onto the wrong plane. As a result, I landed in Miami almost an hour later
than planned. By the time I got out and got my car rental after standing in a
surprisingly long line-up for 12:15am, I was finally off to my hotel, which
wasn't far from the airport. However, I didn't get there straight away. I saw
some flashing lights behind me that didn't seem like they were going to go
away. I have never been stopped by the police before, so I didn't decide to
pull over after slowing down and realising the cop was not going away. Turns
out my headlights weren't on, which I didn't realise. The guy at the rental
agency brought the car to me, and the lights looked like they were on, but I
guess they were the running daylights, and I didn't notice that the rears
weren't on. I got off with the warning that driving without lights was a
violation of the law. I was lucky I didn't get a ticket, but I thought it was a
rather redundant warning the cop gave me, especially since I explained the
situation to him.
Sunday
after the fair, I visited with a friend. We went out for coffee and dinner, and
it was so refreshing just to walk around and get some air--and also to have
company to do it with! So often I'm by myself, which is why I didn't enjoy Fort
Lauderdale as much and relegated myself to eating grocery store food in my
hotel room so as not to sit by myself at a restaurant too much. However,
travelling for a certain amount of time now, I've been able to make friends
with a few people in different parts, so here and there, I do have a few people
to visit, which is really nice.
I had
run into the recruiter for the Vancouver Film School at the fair on Sunday, and
as we were both attending the same fair on Monday as well, I volunteered to
pick her up at her hotel and go together with her. After that fair, we ended up
spending an excellent afternoon at a Cuban restaurant situated just inside
Little Havana. We learned only after going to that restaurant that we were in
Little Havana and that the college we had been at is situated at the corner of
that area. I was pretty excited because I didn't get to go there last year when
I was in Miami, and the other recruiter was equally as excited as I was, so we
just took a quick drive through a part of Little Havana. One of the security
guards at the college's parking lot was telling us not to go past 17th street,
though, as apparently it's Vietnam after that. I'm not entirely sure what that
means, but I understood that it meant the area is too dangerous. Because we
were just driving, I couldn't get any photos, and I thought it perhaps just as
well. I didn't want to draw suspicion to myself by flashing a camera anywhere!
As
for today, the morning proved to be more relaxing than I thought. I had to
drive out to Coconut Creek, about a 45 minute drive from my hotel in Miami, to
do a school visit. I thought there would be a lot of rush hour traffic, so I
left quite early, but there wasn't any traffic backed up at all anywhere, so I
ended up arriving at the school a bit too early. Thankfully, there was a park
across the street from the school, and the park had a large man-made pond
connected to a canal, and there were ducks and other kinds of water fowl of
which I don't know the names. So I spent about 15 minutes there before heading
into the school. After the visit was done, I went back to the park to watch the
birds while I wrote up my report from the visit. It was so pleasant!
I
look forward to tomorrow as I'll get together with my friend again before
leaving to Mexico City on Thursday morning. I'll see how many more pictures I
get to post for an album to correspond to this entry
February 06
I
went to a dangerous place today, The Book Cellar in HUB Mall. This is a
dangerous place because it's not only a bookstore, but it's a discount
bookstore. I can only say that I'm glad I don't work in HUB anymore, or else
I'd be spending far too much money there as I used to. I did discover something
wonderful there today: the poet Samuel Coleridge, whose works I've never read
before. It was love at first poem, and melancholia with the second, but that
wonderful, profound melancholia, in a poem called Youth and Age. I highly recommend a read of it before
you go on with the rest of my reflection.
I
was sitting in HUB Mall reading it, letting its very words reach the depths of
my soul and the most intricate folds of my brain. I do think about all the time
that has passed, the chronic pain in my knees, the faint beginnings of wrinkles
about to form, and the scores of white hair that my stylist says I should call
"silver strands." A rose by any other name...
As I
arose from my seat to go meet my cousin at his office, I walked through HUB
Mall to the pedway and out to the back of the Tory building. These were steps I
frequented so many times during the 4 years of my bachelor's degree and still
enough times during my master's as I was working in HUB at that time. I
remembered the crowded halls, the friends I would meet or run into, the exams I
was studying for, the papers I had to write. There was great joy in learning;
anxiety in being evaluated; anticipation of the future; energy in my youth. And
somehow in that time, I've managed to discover that I know less now, that I'm
not what I thought I'd be, and that I've grown to learn in different ways than
I used to. It's an odd feeling to look in the mirror and see a child, an
adolescent, and young adult, and a maturing one all at once. I wonder what
it'll feel like in 5 years, in 50 years. I'm in no rush to find out.
