Mexico!

So my first stop along the way has been great. Since I´ve been here once before it feels somewhat homey, and I´m staying with Marisol´s family who won´t let me do ANYTHING!!!!! They´re so scared for me. I flew in and immediately her aunt, Juana, asked me ´how crazy are you, wearing expensive shoes and an elegant jacket?!´ Whatever, it´s not as bad as they say. This internet cafe is actually the first place they let me go alone. I make it sound like it´s bad, but it´s really awesome. I´m eating like a king. My diva status has earned me 2 more birthday parties here, in addition to the 7 I had back home. I´m sleeping between Juana´s house and her parents´ house and there are millions of family members and kids and babies I´m seeing again... it´s really nice, actually.

Last time I was here, I got really sick. This time, no. I´m eating too much and my body´s telling me so, but it´s really rude (apparently) to refuse anything at all, even 4th servings, so when I start to feel like throwing up, I just put my napkin and any trash from the table in my plate. It´s the only way. Yesterday, we loaded up the truck and went to the zoo at Chapultapec. The highlight was a brief wandering through Polanco, the super swanky side of Mexico City that is an entirely different world from the rest of the places I´m seeing. What keeps smacking me in the face here is how insulated we are from the normal realities of sustaining a population.... That´s to say you watch your food die then you eat it. You throw trash away, but between your relatives´houses, you drive through the landfill. Parks are built on top of old landfills - I was thinking, yeah they do that at home too... in Staten Island! The water doesn´t come during the day at Juan´s house, so they have a cistern to store it for the daytime. There are hundreds of people that work in the landfills recovering stuff to sell at markets.... it´s so GREEN and sustainable!! Really though, I love this country thanks to the people hosting me over here. And the food, there´s no close second.

Yesterday Angel, one of the little kids of the family, got sick on the way home from the zoo. He puked everywhere. It was vivdly reminiscent of the last time I was here, in the same seat of the same truck, puking out the same window, it was even the same color! Poor kid, but better him than me! The first day I got here I was dead tired thanks to the amazing last-night-in-NY I had, and was thinking for about 5 hours that maybe this trip would be a good time to kick a nastly little smoking habit I´ve somewhat recently picked up........ but it feels soooo GOOOD to have a smoke after a huge meal that Mexico is a place that makes it impossible to stop.

Today I went to Tepito in el Centro, then to Merced. Both are huge market...areas is the best word, I guess... I bought some CDs in Tepito (I wasn´t allowed to wear my jacket there, according to Juana) and then in Merced the guys sell a lot of candies from stalls. And the girls sell goodies too, on the corners. It´s a really exciting and stimulating place but you can´t help but thank Juana for all the blessings she´s constantly saying. Police will go by in trucks, 4 in the back and 2 in the front... and the guys are like my age and look like boys with toys, only their toys are assault rifles. It looks crazy but Juan say´s they´re clowns. Juan is THE MAN. He is Marisol´s uncle and was with us the entire time last time I was here. He knows everything, can do anything, never gets mad and always has a plan. I´m about to go have a few beers with him, actually.

I´ve been sleeping perfectly because I´m totally surrounded by Spanish (what a surprise, I though all Mexicans spoke English...) as opposed to last time when I was with my friend Michelle whose family I am staying with now. It´s the best way though, considering what I´m doing, but it makes my brain tired as hell by the end of the day. I watched Terminator 3 last night, and it´s equally bad in Spanish as it is in English. Again, no surprise. The surprise was that you don´t need to understand everything they say to know exactly what´s going on.

I have to end the ramble. I´m having a great time so far, my feet are wet and I´m ready to dive in... I actually can´t wait for the new scenery in Brazil, if ya know what I´m saying. Juan must be waiting for the beers...