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Mexico '06 Day 1

Since I was a little kid, I've always wanted to go to Mexico City. Kell was traveling last summer so since she was flying from the DR, I ended up flying by myself down to Mexico City. The flight was fairly unenventful. It was a 4 or 5 hour direct flight down to Mexico City. As we were preparing for the final descent, I could see the city limits. Huge. I don't think there's anywhere in Mexico City where you can see the whole city at one place.

I made it through customs, and asked about taking a taxi versus the metro. I was told to just take the metro. I wasn't sure how it would be, as every guidebook and the State page on mexico advises people not to take the metro, or at least be careful about it. And that women traveling alone shouldn't do it. Well, since it was the middle of the day, I thought I could handle it. Needless to say, I went to the front train which is for women and children only and had no problem.

However, at that point I realized I had thrown away the directions to the hostel at Baltimore. I remembered which metro stop I was staying at and just went there. I found an internet cafe, looked up the direction-asked someone where it was and made it to the casa de amigos--the Quaker hostel we were staying at. I dropped off my stuff in our room and headed out to get lunch. I went for a lunch that was less than $2.5o american and was a 3 course meal. The highlights of the meal were the fresh corn tortillas (made to order) and the green sauce. I fell in love with the green sauce. Of course I had to have a licuado. I think I just had a banana one.

I still had several hours to burn until Kelli arrived at the hostel. Our hostel was a few blocks from the museo de revolucion (Museum to the 1910 Mexican Revolution). I ended up on a free tour and got a history of Mexico that was a little different than what I was ever taught. Very, very interesting. Afterwards, I walked around where we were staying, bought some snacks and bottled water and then headed back to the hostel.

Kell arrived back to the hostel and we had a happy reunion. We then went back out and walked around. We metro'd down to the Zocalo and took a look at where the temple of the sun was. The main street of Mexico City down to the Zocalo was emptied of cars and full of protestors. Needless to say, the protests actually had a family feel to them (there were carnival rides for little kids etc) and we decided to just walk back to our hostel since we really weren't that far.

We were both kind of hungry so we ended up getting tacos. The guy charged us about a dollar for the tacos...needless to say, we didn't go back to that vendor. Gringo priced tacos? Lame. We
walked back to the hostel and crashed.

MexicoDayOne

Mexico Day 2

We started out the day with breakfast with the Quakers. Upon arriving at the Quaker hostel the day before, (our mothers were happier we were staying with them) we found out they did a 15 peso desayuno. It was fruit cereal, egg with zucchini and water or coffee. We ate with the Quakers(Hippy Gringos and a few Mexicanos...good discussion) and then took off for the metro. We arrived at the stop for the museo anthopological and then accidentally went the wrong way. We turned around, asked for directions and made it to the Anthropology Museum.
The Anthropology museum in Mexico City has captured my imagination since I was a kid in Vernal. The museum was huge. I'm sure I could go back and still learn just as I did the half-day we were there. There's 23 rooms in the museum. We walked in about half of them. Kell bought a English audio guide which was worthless and I piggybacked onto a tour. We saw so many amazing pieces. It was the first time I ever experienced museum overload between the pieces, the stories, and it all...it blew my mind. The Aztec and Mayan rooms? Phenomenal. Oh yeah, I want to go back.
Anyway, we left at about 2 and got lunch by the "lake." I had an avacado torta (sandwich) which was just so-so. Afterwards, we headed to the Basilica a Guadalupe. Talk about a crazy ol' time. We got there in mid-day (one of the few days it was hot!) and our jaws dropped. There were 5 different churches dedicated to the Virgin; the new church, the old church, a little church on the spot where Juan Diego had the vision and another one that we never went down to see. All of this is on a hill overlooking part of the city. We went into the old church (which had visible earthquake damage) and then walked up the hill to the church which was on the spot where Juan Diego claimed to see the Virgin. In that church, I really liked the murals on the walls. Anyway, before we left, we walked up to the new church to see the mantle where the image appeared. Interesting, it looked just like a 17th Century religious painting. That being said, I'm really glad we went there.
Afterwards, we decided to walk to the plaza de tres culturas. While walking, we realized that we were walking in a part of town that we probably shouldn't be walking in. We found a bus and went to the plaza which was amongst housing developments. It was a little sketchy, but in reality--parts of DC are much more run down. We looked around, and then jumped on a bus and jumped back off at a metro station. We went back to the hostel and Kelli took her clothes to the laundromat and then had dinner and licuados de leche.

Mexico Day 3

Teotihuacan
We didn't eat breakfast with the Quakers. Kelli was wearing the same clothes for a third day and felt a little embarrassed so we just ate breakfast when we got to the bus station. We took a bus to Teotihuacan . We got there and there was a rope demonstration. One guy was playing an instrument and 4 guys twirled around, being held only by their ankle with rope. We crashed a tour which was in Spanish. I believe it was a free tour. We learned all about Quetzocoatl temple, and the significance of a lot of different things. We learned about other temples and buildings in that structure.
The tour we jumped on was a soccer team of all latinos who were from California. Their coach asked us to spend the week with them watching their games and hanging out. We were tempted but there was other things we wanted to do down there.
We then walked over to the inside of one of the smaller temples. However, there was a group of gringos doing some sort of ceremony complete with ummit was the weirdest thing. It almost looked like a Lesbian Wiccan commitment ceremony. They were chanting and one person would go up to a crack in the rock and lift their arms and chant and then go and kiss their partner. We then went up to the temple del sol-the 2nd tallest pyramid in the americas and third in the world. It was rainy, but pretty cool up there.
Afterwards we walked over to another temple and looked around. Some of the original paintings were barely visible there. We walked up to the top of the Moon pyramid and sat on top for a bit and looked around. We walked over to the Museum of teotihucan which was really cool. There was a model of what Teotihuacan probably looked like and a bunch of artifacts.
Afterwards, we took the bus back to Mexico City and got some tamales at the vendor there at the bus station. Those tamales and hot chocolate rocked. By that time, it was getting kind of late so we went back to the hostel neighborhood to pack our stuff to head to Oaxaca in the morning. We ate 4 for a dollar mini tacos that rocked. Seriously awesome. We then got banana licuados and called it a night.

Mexico Day Four

http://picasaweb.google.com/joybuhler/MexicoDay4

We got up pretty early, headed to the bus station and realized we were at the wrong bus station. We needed the West bus station to get a bus to Oaxaca so we took the metro to the other terminal on the other side of the city. We got a bus, no problem and while we waited we got some food. As I was eating, I tore a gash into the side of my mouth with my teeth. Not the smartest thing to do, especially in the birthplace of chili peppers.
Anyway, as we were on the bus leaving the city, I saw a truck full of dead, plucked chickens in the bed. No wrapping or anything on them in August...um yeah-made me even that much more suspicious of chicken in Latin America.
The buses down there are pretty cool and comfortable. Three movies were shown. I didn't get much sleep like usual so the movies were welcome. I mostly watched the scenery which was pretty cool.
The pacific side of Latin America from Chile to Mexico away from the equator looks a lot like the pacific side of the United States, except Latin America is often bigger. We passed some pretty steep canyons and jagged mountains. We made a few stops in some towns on the way.
We saw a lot of poverty, cornfields, and desert landscape. We made it to Oaxaca and caught a bus to our hostel. The hostel was 5 dollars a piece a night.
We stayed in a mixed dorm, but everyone there was nice and friendly.
We threw our bags on our beds and then went down to the centro. There was a popsicle/ice cream shop right next to the hostel on the corner and I ended up getting a mango y chile popsicle. That was interesting. Especially with the gash in my mouth.
We walked around, saw more protestors, saw that the municipal building had most of the windows broken on the first level so we didn't get to see the murals in there. We walked around, checked out the cathedral, did a little shopping and then went to eat. As we were walking to El Bicho to eat, it started raining. Hard. We made it into the restaurant and ordered a feast for 6...except there was two of us. Needless to say, it was a memorable, delicious, introduction to Oaxacan food and los moles.

Mexico Day Five

http://picasaweb.google.com/joybuhler/MexicoDay5

We got up and headed over to the bus station to get a bus up to Monte Alban. We walked although the station was probably a mile or two from our hostel. We walked on over, and got on a bus. The bus ride was fairly uneventful, and we arrived to the bus stop. We had a couple of people ask us to give us a tour, but we decided to do it ourselves.
The ruins at Alban seem to be more intricate than the ones at Teotihuacan. We walked over to the far end and on top of the pyramid. Then we noticed the artwork that was still visible on the rocks (I want to say some of this was restored) of men dancing.
The Observatory was closed, probably due to the strikes, but it was still a striking ruin from the outside. We then walked over to the otherside and struck up a conversation with an older gentleman who told me about the mythology of the Zapotec people and then we both bought a clay figurines from him. After we bought them, he kept telling me how they were pieces he found in his corn field.
I didn't believe him, but then he told me more stories about being a tomb raider, about how many, many people raided tombs and Monte Alban and how he had just sold a bunch of pieces to a Californian a few weeks ago. I related this to Kelli later, and we both hope our pieces are fake...
Anyway, Monte Alban was artificially leveled, and is pretty flat. Its on top of a hill that overlooks a mountain range and has two valleys on either side, one looks an awfully lot like Kamas Valley, and the other Ashley Valley(Vernal).
Theres buildings on both sides of the site, and a field and the observatory in the middle towards the far corner. There's a ball court as you enter the ruin. After spending a couple of hours walking around the ruins, we walked over to the museum and spent some time there. We then went back into the city and had tacos at a street vendor's cart. It was one of those meals that you say a silent prayer that you won't regret the meal, but neither of us got sick. Afterwords we went to a prehispanic art museum and then went to dinner.
We once again ordered too much and feasted on seafood. Then we did a little shopping before we went back to the pension.

Mexico Day 6

We got up and went to catch a bus over to Mitla to see the ruins there, and spend some time outside of Oaxaca City. The bus ride took a hour and we rapidly were out in a rural area.
We got off the bus and checked out the ruins at Mitla. The ruins at Mitla were Zapotec, like Monte Alban, and Mixtec. The ruins were ramsacked and then a colonial church was built on top of the largest temple so today, there's a church in basically the middle of the ruins complex. These ruins were more intricate than Teotihuacan or even Monte Alban.

We walked around for a while and then it was about lunch time. Across from the church was several stalls of women cooking food. We got flautas and quesadillas. Both were excellent, and Kelli still talks about the squash flower and string cheese quesadilla we had. As we were waiting for our food, a funeral procession went by.

After we ate, we did some shopping and then headed back to town. We went to Tule, to see the largest tree in MesoAmerica. The Tree was massive, and there was a church built right next to it. We marveled at the tree, had a mid-day snack of enchiladas and shaved ice and then went back to Oaxaca. At Oaxaca, we went around the Cathedral and then ate another large dinner.

Mexico Day 6

Mexico Day 7

For some reason, I never wrote down what we did our last three days of our trip. Yeah, I'm lame so I'm winging it from here on out. On Day 7, we were still in Oaxaca and decided to track down where Nacho Libre was filmed. On the way there, we saw a motorcyclist get hit. He didn't look dead.
We looked around Etla and couldn't figure out where it was. We then went to the church in Etla, and thought, well this looks more or less like the church in Nacho Libre. Kelli looked over the valley, and yelled to me. The church was over on the other side of the valley. We hired two teens in a moto-taxi to take us to the church, and then took pictures of the place. We didn't stay too long, and headed back to Oaxaca. I really enjoyed that town.

We then traveled to Puebla that afternoon. We got to Puebla at 9:00 pm in the evening. Kelli slept most of the bus ride, I stared out the window. We drove past a simply incredible looking volcano. Anyway, Puebla at night was sketchy. I was exhausted so when we got there, I let Kell communicate with the taxi driver. Both were extremely fustrated with the other, and so I stepped in and talked to the taxi driver and we got to where we were staying. I apologized to Kelli for not stepping in sooner.

When we arrived at the hostel, the receptionist claimed we had no reservation. After arguing for 15 minutes, I showed him the reservation on-line. Needless to say, we shouldn't have stayed there. That place had no security, the shower sucked, we were staying in a room that didn't lock. After we got that straightened out, we went out for water but didn't go real far. I was a little spooked by the city, and it takes a lot to spook me in Latin America. Anyway, we didn't sleep all that well that night and I wasn't sure about Puebla.

Mexico Day 7

Mexico Day 8

We woke up in Puebla and decided to take a stand about our crappy hostel. We told them we weren't staying there the next night and got a room at the "4 star" hotel three or four doors down for 40 dollars for the two of us. We had two beds, it was clean, the door locked, and really compared to where we were staying, it was well worth the splurge.

We then decided to take a 15 dollar tour a piece of Cholula, the largest pyramid in Mesoamerica (that was covered, and a church was put on top of it of course.) The tour was alright, it was nice not having to figure out public transportation etc and just kick back and take it all in. When Cortez got to Cholula he encountered very hostile natives. They fought and fought, and Cortez vowed he would put 365 churches in the town. Actually there's about 40, but the ones we saw were amazing and elaborate.

We first went to the pyramid topped by a church. We didn't get a chance to tour the pyramid, but we did the church. I bought a hat on top, and at the bottom, an old cowboy asked for my hat. I should've gave it to him. We then went to several churches and then back to town. Kelli and I ate lunch at the square, went to the Museum of Revolution and befriended our tour guide, or he befriended us. The story of the Revolution is jaw-dropping and sober to say the least. We then went to a few sights and ate chile al nogada for dinner. Kelli still talks about it. We went back to our room, kicked back and watched tv in our posh room.

Mexico Day 8

Mexico Day 9

Somewhere I'm missing a day. Anyway, we got up the next morning and headed back to Mexico City on a bus. There are second class buses and first class buses. We were on a second class bus and it was slummin' it a little. The lavatory reeked, it was pretty old, but Mean Girls was playing on the television, and it passed the time until we got to Mexico City.

We checked out Diego Rivera's murals. I'm a huge fan of his work, and his wife Frida. Fascinating people. We also went to their house in a nice neighborhood. We also went to see Diego's murals in a museum, and the palace of bellas artes. We couldn't get into the department of education where a bunch of Diego's murals reside. We also went to get hot chocolate and churros for Kelli. We were headed there one evening, but both of us had a bad feeling about it. We both think we were probably being followed and we turned back before we got there.

Anyway, I'm sure I'm missing a ton of stuff. Oh well.

Mexico Day Nine

Holy Toledo: Recap

When Kelli and I heard from our friend Carolyn that she was moving up to Michigan to live in July, we immediately started scheming to go up and visit. Well, we didn't make it up there until the first week of November. We drove up to the Pittsburgh area on Thursday night, stayed literally 500 feet from I-76 (noisy ol' road), and drove up to Cleveland the next day.
As we got to the Cleveland Suburbs, we ended up in the express lane, and by the time we realized what we did, the next exit was Kirtland. Kirtland Ohio wasn't even on our radar, but we decided we might as well stop since we had to get off that exit anyway. We found the Kirtland Temple and did the Community of Christ tour. The tour guide did an amazing job and was very knowledgeable about the history of that grand old building. We also ate at a great restaurant and had pierogies and paprikash. Good meal.
As we both were planning to go to the Rock and Roll Museum we headed on down the road. We made it to the Rock and Roll Museum in Cleveland two or three hours before it closed and stayed until closing. The building takes advantage of natural lighting and is pretty good sized. We spent most of our time on the ground floor. As you walk into the museum, the first picture is an Annie Liebowitz of Chuck Berry. On the other side was a Beach Boys exhibit, including film of Brian Wilson performing with the Boys. There was costumes, a great music influences section, early drawings by Lennon, exhibits of the music scene in various cities, Janis Joplin's Porsche and I could go on. We then went up and watched the Hall of Fame inductees video and spent a couple of minutes in an exhibit on the early years of Rock and then it was closing time. After a quick tour of the Gift show we were on the road.
We drove through Toledo and made it to Detroit a little after nine where Carolyn was waiting for us. We talked for a bit and then went to bed.
The next morning we got up, Carolyn made fabulous cinnamon rolls and we decided to go into Detroit since Carolyn hadn't been yet. We first went to Detroit's Eastern Market, which frankly is incomparable to DC's. It was extensive, the produce was cheap and we had a great time. We stopped in a few shops, bought a few things and then ate at one of the many Coney Restaurants that populate Detroit.
After lunch we headed over to the Motown Museum after a bit of a detour in one of Detroit's "finer" neighborhoods. And by neighborhoods I mean, extensive abandoned warehouses. We arrived at the Motown Museum which is actually two houses linked together. We took a tour of the buildings and were awed by the history. We spent a few minutes in the original recording studio and well, wow.
After that we went to Downtown Detroit, saw where the Fox theater was, gawked at the baseball field and then went down to the riverfront. We gazed over at "Canada," and wished we had our passports since Carolyn had never been. We spent some time at the Underground Railroad Memorial and then headed back to Carolyn's. We ordered pizza and then watched Rocky Balboa(Carolyn loves Rocky). I only watched about 30 minutes before I crashed.
The next morning we got up, hugged and thanked Carolyn and headed out. We stopped at Lake Erie, bought a ton of cheese and sandwiches at the "Cheese house," somewhere in Ohio and drove the rest of the way back to DC arriving home about 7:00. Anyway, great trip and thanks Carolyn!

Carolyn or Bust!

From Google, with Love

Someone typed in the following and landed on this blog.

how did the element rhenium (re) get its name
nclex, 75, failed

Holy Toledo !!!

Here's a post to share information about the Carolyn roadtrip. I've dubbed it rustbelt '07, but another name would work too. I also thought about using a line from the White Stripe song about Detroit (since we're basically going to Detroit Suburbs), but I'm totally open. Anyway, my first blurb:

Excerpt about Toledo:

Tony Packo’s Cafe –1902 Front Street. This cafe gained national recognition
through the frequent references made by cross-dressing Corporal Max Klinger in
the M*A*S*H TV series. The signature item on the menu is the Hungarian hot dog,
which is made with sausage and a secret sauce.
http://www.travel-library.com/holidays/north_america/usa/ohio/toledo/

Apples Are Amazing

Roadtrip! Stribling Orchards is home to amazing apples, cinnamon apple scones, and fresh apple cider. Located in Markham, VA they are also a gateway to a scenic byway. It was a pretty cool trip - the leaves were changing, the cows and horses were out in the fields, and there were plenty of rolling hills to make it picturesque. We also stopped at a little 19th century church and walked through their graveyard. Overall, western Virginia is a recommended puddlejump if you're ever in the area.

How to Lose the Yankee Vote Or my note to Giuliani

So, you're a mayor of one of the biggest baseball cities in the world. You are from that city, you claim to be a life-long fan of the baseball team, you wear their gear and love to tell the story that you got beat up for wearing a Yankees cap in Brooklyn, you go to their games even after you're out of office, and you claim you're rooting for their biggest rival in the World Series because you're an AL fan? That's the lamest excuse since Sen. Craig went prowling at the Minnesota Airport.

Even if you narrowly escaped the big sleep by a 3-2 vote(which somehow ups your cool factor), you're dead to me, and many, many other Yankee fans. I cut Mitt some slack for changing his views on certain issues, but this? Even if New Hampshire primaries are coming up, this is unforgiveable flip-flopping!!! Oh why do I care? I'm more or less a Democrat.

75 And Counting Down the Minutes

The NCLEX is finished - for better or for worse. I was photographed, fingerprinted, shook down, and escorted to my testing station (by very nice Pearson Center employees) for 75 questions to determine whether or not I can practice as a nurse. I spent last night looking up stuff on the internet from people that failed the test as a way to pre-emptively console myself that it was going to be okay if I sucked it up a little.

So with 75 questions, I either passed with flying colors or failed miserably. The beauty of the test design is that you can't tell which you did because everyone finishes only answering 50% of the questions correctly. The key is that you finish at 50% on a higher difficulty level. For more on that you can read about the test here. Surprisingly, reading about other people that had failed was comforting.

With 24 hours until I find out if I passed, I decided to list a few things that involve the prodigious number 75:

1) 75% - a Gentleman's C. Good enough to get you out of Yale and elected to high national office.

2) 75 years ago, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its lowest level in the Great Depression (you can only go up from here!)

3) In '75, Jaws debuted (and most of the characters survived).

4) Rhenium the 75th element is one of the 10 most expensive metals on earth (if Wikipedia is to be believed).

5) Mona Shaw is a 75 year-old retired nurse from Virginia that smashed up her local Comcast office with a hammer. While we don't condone violence, we commend Mona for her sitcom-esque flourish. Double points if she told the customer service rep "Fo' Shizzle My Nizzle!"

Ziering!!!

I'm going through all my music and listening to all the stuff that I never listen to and have discovered some bands I didn't even know I had. Including the Flaming Lips. Turns out the Flaming Lips made a memorable appearance on Beverly Hills 90210 where Ian Ziering's character said "You know, I've never been a big fan of alternative music, but these guys rocked the house!" What a tool.

To see this amazing lip synched performance - with some awesome head bobbing to the beat by Ian Ziering - check out this Youtube link.

Also, I thought I would put in a plug for allmusic.com, which gave me the information to track down this rare sellout performance. Allmusic is a comprehensive database of musicians, their discographies, and bios of the bands. Nothing says love like comprehensive geekiness.

This is the Part Where I Apologize For Jinxing the Indians

Yes, the Red Sox are going to the Series. Apparently their pitching staff is more resilient than Lazarus. And the Indian's batters are streakier than Nancy Grace's hair.

So that should teach me that making predictions on my blog is a bad idea. But, what are blogs for if not putting down bad ideas. Prediction: Rockies sweep the series (because if they go to game 7, they're sure to lose). Prediction: I'm going to eat my words in a week.

48 hours to Game 1 and the NCLEX. Game on!

Jason Schwartzman Knows My Name

As long as I change my name to Sylvia.

The Darjeeling Limited played last night in Georgetown and afterwards Jason Schwartzman (yes Max Fischer himself) came to answer questions.

Best question of the night: mine of course. Because Schwartzman renamed me Sylvia as he chose me to ask a question. I could get used to that name. There's lots of famous Sylvia's in the world: Sylvia Plath, Sylvia ummm....

Most moronic question of the night: "I noticed the Ipod is different between the Hotel Chevalier [the short prologue film] and The Darjeeling Limited. Is that character driven?" All I can say is best fan ever!

So the movie: gorgeous, quirky, touching. And I almost cried. If you see the movie, you'll know which scene I'm talking about. The movie reminded me of all the scariness of traveling; hurtling down a track in a foreign country trying to locate yourself on a map so you can get off on the right stops to get to the must see sites. Trying to connect to a foreign culture and the other travelers around you. Inevitably, the most memorable parts of the trip come when your itinerary is blown to hell.

Darjeeling is not everybody's cup of tea (it's definitely not a Diet Coke). According to Schwartzman, the film was a very personal journey for the writers and I think it's the same for those watching it.

Other observations about the film: 1) The race for the train was a fantastic opening sequence. 2) Favorite line: "I like the way this country smells. Kind of spicy." 3) Why is Adrien Brody so hot in all his gangly dorkiness? and 4) The mustache looks surprisingly at home on Schwartzman's face. Anyway, long live Sylvia!