Sandra Mayo

Sandra came on May 14th and stayed with me for two weeks after finishing her finals. The first day we took a flight to Zihuatenejo. You may recognize the name Zihuatenejo as it is the small fishing village referenced in the movie Shawshank Redemption where one of the prisoners says that he buried his loot there and will go there when he escapes. As an aside, Shawshank Redemption is currently the number one movie of all-time on imdb.com. Anyway, Zihuatenejo is great! It has definitely retained its village charm and Sandra and I had the luck of being there in low season. We stayed at a small AirBnB hotel and we were the only guests! We were also one block from the local corner store. Everyone in Zihuatenejo seemed to hang out on their stoops at night and it made for an extremely pleasant atmosphere. It was also much more affordable than Puerto Vallarta or Cancun. 

The only thing that was a little off was that the police were all military police and had massive automatic rifles. It was also fairly normal to see a federal police pick-up truck with a bunch of soldiers in the back and one guy manning a mounted machine gun turret. The reason for this is that Zihuatenejo is in the state of Guerrero and according to the State Department website, there are only 3 safe cities in the state of Guerrero: Taxco, Acapulco, and Zihuatenejo. I have been to all three. Luckily, none of the violence is directed at tourists because the bad guys benefit from tourism too. We had an enjoyable 3 days in Zihuatenejo and just lounged around for 3 days walking around to different beaches. According to the locals we were there about 2 weeks before the rainy season begins, so our timing couldn't have been better. 

Our little hotel in Zihuatenejo

Playa de la Ropa

After getting back from Zihuatenejo a little more tanned (Sandra tans insanely fast, me... not so much), we set out to see Mexico City. We started with Coyoacan, former residence of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. We went to the Museo de Frida Kalho and couldn't resist the photo opp:

I still can't get over how fat Diego Rivera was. He was not a good looking guy, but I guess neither was Frida Kahlo. In the photo above, they are both incredibly good looking of course. I still find it a little hypocritical that Diego and Frida were socialists/communists yet they lived in a MASSIVE house. The house is an entire square block. To me, it doesn't really embody the principles of communism. 

As we were leaving we saw the dancing doctor of Farmacias Similares. This is Mexican marketing at its best. I have a pharmacy. How can I market that we are professional and good value? Anwer: Dancing fat doctor. The doctor dances for hours to all kinds of Mexican music: salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, bachata, etc...   

One of the days we were in Mexico City, this weird thing happened where there was a halo around the sun. Everyone went crazy, but I swear I remember seeing stuff like this as a kid in Seattle. Promptly pictures started getting sent around on Whatsapp. I received the picture below like 3 times from different people. It's a Dragon Ball Z reference, which is apparently a huge thing in Mexico because it was one of the shows that aired on free antenna TV in Mexico in the 90's. It is part of the cultural identify of all Mexicans between the ages of 20 and 35. 

The Friday night after we got back to Mexico City we went to a comedy show, which is something I had always wanted to do.

The comedian's name was Ricardo O'Farrill and he was spectacular. He reminded me of the comedians you see on Comedy Central in New York. He was seriously that good. It was also a good test of my Mexican Spanish because they say that comedy is one of the hardest things to understand in a foreign language, but I got almost all of his jokes and cultural references. There was a lot of bathroom humor, but he also had some great social commentary on Mexican culture and politics. 

The next day we went to the Castillo de Chapultepec. Even though I have been to the castle like 5 times, my Mexican national history is still not very good: Spain conquers Mexico, something something, 1810 Mexican independence, something something, 1910 Mexican Revolution, something something, War on Drugs, something something, Present Day. 

On Sunday we considered doing something cultural like going to a Pueblo Magico or going to a museum or something of the like, but instead we went to Six Flags Mexico. Best decision ever. I still had my annual pass from the last time I went so it was free for me and Sandra's ticket was only $15. The weather forecast said thunderstorms all afternoon so the park was almost deserted. We had a bit of a fright because when we first got there, all the rides were closed indefinitely due to thunderstorms. I guess large metal roller coaster structures attract lightning bolts somehow. But after about 45 minutes everything cleared up and we were getting our asses kicked by all sorts of roller coasters: Superman, Batman, Medussa, Kalauea, Curandero.

As mentioned in a previous blog, Six Flags has a thing called Flash Pass which basically lets you buy your way to the front of the line. The concept is a little bit fucked up because it teaches kids that money can resolve anything, but it worked great for us. We skipped all the lines and walked to the front. We actually got kicked out of the best ride for jumping the barriers in order to save time, but we snuck back in later in the day. Highlight of the day was the Old West photo we took in costume, which I sent out to the family Whatsapp group.

 Churro Sheriff

 The whole time Sandra was here I worked from about 8 am - 2 pm leaving us the afternoons free. One day we decided to go to the Universidad Autonoma Nacional de México (UNAM) which has 300,000 students. It is so big that it is called Ciudad Universitaria or University City. The architecture is all very unique and very Mexican as seen in the building below of the library. This is also the site of the Mexican Olympics in 1968. The university is filled with hipster / hippy-ish dressed students. UNAM is the most prestigious university in Mexico and is also free tuition.

We decided to be cultured and went to the Museo Universitarero de Arte Contemporaneo (MUAC) or University Museum of Contemporary Art. We weren't quite sure what to expect as modern art can be really hit or miss. Below I am outside the MUAC.

Here is one interesting piece we found. It was a dinner table with pictures of food and then 6 flat screen TVs pointed to each other. The artist had video taped a dinner between 6 people and then put each persons face on a TV screen to reenact the meal. All the TVs were synced and you could listen to their conversation.

We also saw lots of weird pieces including a bunch of videos showing naked people walking around in nature. It's art I guess.

Sandra left on May 28th and for me it marked the last part of my Fulbright. I don't have any more visitors and things are wrapping up. I am doing almost no work at work because they have nothing for me to do. I spend my days learning French on Duolingo, taking an online computer science course, doing homework, and taking the required pre-term coursework in calculus for Johns Hopkins. It is disappointing that my job isn't more fulfilling, but I am making the most of it. I also recently learned that my company will be excluded from the Fulbright program next year, which I think is for the best. Although I do have great colleagues, there is no real work for me here. Anyway, I will enjoy my remaining 3 weeks and then I am home to Olympia for the 4th of July!