so i finally broke down and did it. after six months of turning up my nose at starbucks in mexico city. i stopped by for a brownie frappaccino (its like a extra charged coffee milkshake with bits of brownies in it!) i also wasn't carrying any cash & have been craving new york city lately, so a visit to the evil starbucks seemed in order.
i was walking home from work in the afternoon sun. that morning one my students said that here in d.f. we have all 4 seasons in one day & its true it was freezing in the morning & sweltering by 1pm.
starbucks angel is in the retail complex of the sheraton, next door to the american embassy. I could see a guy reading newspapers in english. i'm definitely going in. (total news junkie) i greet the plainclothes guard & walk in. looks & smells just like a regular starbucks. Smells like burnt coffee & caramel & muffins. the music is from one of those starbucks samplers, i think its david gray. big hugecomfy chairs. there's a bunch of pasty businessmen. a guy yapping on his cell phone in english with a heavy mexican accent. some ladies drinking lattes. a couple of backpackers with guidebooks, some german looking tourists. students (how can they afford this- my chai latte costs like an hourof teaching.) a bunch of people with clip on ideas mob the cash register. i wonder if they work at the embassy. i feel jealous of them. might be a good idea to hang around here.
yeah they have chai! one iced chai for me please! the medium size costs roughly an hour at my teaching job, but hey I'm a homesick american! I deserve a treat! the guy behind me orders "un-o espresso sol-o por fav-or" I bet he's from georgia.
i take over one of the comfy chairs next to the big guy reading the news in english- he graciously leaves his entire stack of newspapers to me. and i sit for an hour one eye on the newspaper one eye on my surroundings. its all very interesting.
Tuesday
day of the dead
i am so excited to be in mexico to witness the dia de los muertos festivities. ever since my 10th grade spanish teacher showed us the crazy skeleton fugures & tableaux, i have wanted to participate in theis pre-hispanic holiday. I have been buying sugar skulls like a mad woman and i soon as i get paid again i will be hitting la ciduela & my local mercado san cosme for paper maiche skeleton & tombs.
Its been interesting to watch the decorations of september mes de patriotismo fall to a mixture of jackolantern and ghosts and skeletons. Actually the pumpkins and halloween things seemed at first to outpopulate the traditional dia de los muertos thigs, but now even the street vendors have skulls made of amaranth &
below is a collection of links of articles & photos i have seen.
cemeteries in mexico city
toluca & metepec
and in spanish also from el universal
i am so excited to be in mexico to witness the dia de los muertos festivities. ever since my 10th grade spanish teacher showed us the crazy skeleton fugures & tableaux, i have wanted to participate in theis pre-hispanic holiday. I have been buying sugar skulls like a mad woman and i soon as i get paid again i will be hitting la ciduela & my local mercado san cosme for paper maiche skeleton & tombs.
Its been interesting to watch the decorations of september mes de patriotismo fall to a mixture of jackolantern and ghosts and skeletons. Actually the pumpkins and halloween things seemed at first to outpopulate the traditional dia de los muertos thigs, but now even the street vendors have skulls made of amaranth &
below is a collection of links of articles & photos i have seen.
cemeteries in mexico city
toluca & metepec
and in spanish also from el universal
wal mart buena vista - mexico, d.f. - 20 october 2003 - 10:45pm
score! a block of parmesean! its from uruguay & you have no idea how happy this made me! We bought barilla gnocci. the first time i had gnocci it was served with a rich 4 cheese sauce in a fancy italian restaurant on ocean drive. there were only like 6 gnoccis and i shared it with 2 other girlfriends, but i'll never forget it! i know that tonight's cena will not come close to that - especially with walmart cheeses, but i want j's first gnocci experience to rock. ((it did. i made a supercheesy pesto with walnuts & there was plenty. the cheap spanish red wasn't too shabby either))
i buy a couple more teeny chocolate skulls (the chocolate ones never make it home. they always break and have to be sacrificed) and find a sugar skull with my dead aunt camilla's name on it. i love dia de muertos. our dining table is covered with skulls & skeletons of candy & clay! I have been eating loads of death bread and little bones- pan de muerto y huesitos !
the other things that made me happy were the organic frozen vegetables- marca: la huerta, a new cheap red wine from spain, a 3 pack of cotton underwear for 15 pesos, a pretty red cabbage, gumdrops & the new issue of df por travesias magazine, and seeing the cost of the groceries in dollars on my bank statement.
The VW bug taxi that took us home has a small tv set rigged below the glove box! I swear mexico has been taken over by television! I saw a police car with the tell tale blue gray glow the other day & every type of sidewalk vendor has one! What were the streets like before cheap tvs?
score! a block of parmesean! its from uruguay & you have no idea how happy this made me! We bought barilla gnocci. the first time i had gnocci it was served with a rich 4 cheese sauce in a fancy italian restaurant on ocean drive. there were only like 6 gnoccis and i shared it with 2 other girlfriends, but i'll never forget it! i know that tonight's cena will not come close to that - especially with walmart cheeses, but i want j's first gnocci experience to rock. ((it did. i made a supercheesy pesto with walnuts & there was plenty. the cheap spanish red wasn't too shabby either))
i buy a couple more teeny chocolate skulls (the chocolate ones never make it home. they always break and have to be sacrificed) and find a sugar skull with my dead aunt camilla's name on it. i love dia de muertos. our dining table is covered with skulls & skeletons of candy & clay! I have been eating loads of death bread and little bones- pan de muerto y huesitos !
the other things that made me happy were the organic frozen vegetables- marca: la huerta, a new cheap red wine from spain, a 3 pack of cotton underwear for 15 pesos, a pretty red cabbage, gumdrops & the new issue of df por travesias magazine, and seeing the cost of the groceries in dollars on my bank statement.
The VW bug taxi that took us home has a small tv set rigged below the glove box! I swear mexico has been taken over by television! I saw a police car with the tell tale blue gray glow the other day & every type of sidewalk vendor has one! What were the streets like before cheap tvs?
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