Veracruz pt. 2

Day 2 in Veracruz! It is completely lovely here and I could get used to looking at a snow-capped volcano every morning (until it started erupting of course). Jeff had his morning rehearsal and then we headed to the Museo de Antropología, which is a must-see in Xalapa. It’s a truly wonderful museum and it is huge!

Monstrous piece, so cool!

The detail on many of these pieces considering how old they are is amazing! Many pieces date from between 1600 and 1200 B.C.

Jeff was a fan of the serpent sculpture. And he felt the need to show that...

"Stop in the name of love..."

They had a special fascination with twins--note that these are depicted with joined feet.

Flutes and ocarinas!

After the museum, we grabbed a taxi to nearby Callejón del Diamante, a street famous for its shops. We had lunch at a very authentic Mexican restaurant and then walked around for a long while. The side street that our restaurant was on was very steep and was completely covered with street vendors, almost all of them selling beautiful jewelry and bags.

It was hard to capture the sheer number of shops because the hill is really steep and they all had umbrellas up because it was starting to rain!

View of Xalapa (yes there are clouds but also mountains in the distance!)

This particular park that we were in had many tropical plants but as Jeff's friend Jeff said (yes, confusing), you can find a palm tree, a cactus, and an evergreen all on the same street corner in Xalapa.

And in fact, I like Xalapa so much that I’m staying an extra night and will be returning to D.F. in the morning instead of tonight! Hopefully our kitties, Schubert and Nielsen (the former to be addressed as Ragebert for the next few days, as he will be very angry with me for leaving him alone), will be OK for a few more hours!

And then there was the day that we woke up in Veracruz

Yes, apparently that can happen.

Snow-capped mountain and city vista: Xalapa, Veracruz

After our long week at UNAM we had a relaxing Saturday, only to find out Sunday morning that I am scheduled to perform Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite this week with the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra. There is a hotel room booked in my name from Sunday-Saturday and the first rehearsal is 10 A.M. Monday morning!

So what do we do? Scramble and get ourselves on a bus to Veracruz, PRONTO!

The bus system in México is much better than in the US. There are two major bus stations in D.F., and they look more like regional airports than what we are used to with Greyhound stations. 4.5 hours later and we were in a car with the principal trumpet player of the orchestra (also Jeff) en route to our very nice hotel in Xalapa. Jeff has been kind enough to mentor and Sherpa us around Xalapa as we are once again los nuevos (Siempre)!

Day 1: Coatepec

Luckily, Mary E came with me for the first 2 days. After, she is going back to D.F. for her own studies and to take care of our kitties. On day 1, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then I went over to the state theater for rehearsal. Afterwards, we took a taxi to the nearby town of Coatepec, a scenic, colonial area known for COFFEE! Thus, drinking coffee was the first order of business:

Mary-E with coffee

Java

Coatepec is also home to a central garden, historic downtown, shops, and many churches.

Churches

Like I said...lots of churches

There were lots of birds at the restaurant where we ate a fabulous lunch of mariscos (seafood). The restaurant is called Casa Bonilla, and boasts that it is on Coatepec’s most famous street corner.

Birds

Jeff told us that this area is funny because you can see a pine tree or rose-bush (not tropical) right next to a palm tree and next to a coconut tree!

it's kind of true

I also bought Mary E a song!

Song-buying

This song, to be exact, which is not only a traditional Mexican song that we like very much, but it’s also the name of one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in Lawrence!

There was a statue in the square celebrating their independence.

Pidgeons don't respect history

When we came out of one of the churches, there was suddenly a little doggie in the threshold. Then outside, there was another dog perched out by a statue of a cross. In fact, there were lots of cute dogs “akimbo” in Coatepec.

Perro

culture

Fulbright Orientation

So, it is now time to catch our readers up on last week! (Sorry, we are a little behind!) I had the orientation sessions for my Fulbright grant last week Tuesday-Friday. I had a great time and got to meet a lot of wonderful people but man, we were both really tired by the end of the week! On Tuesday night, we trekked over to the hotel where everyone was staying for a meet-and-greet reception. Now, we also had the option to stay at the hotel and in retrospect, I wish that we had. When I looked up the address to see how far it was from us, it looked like it would be easy to get to and like it would be better for us to stay home since we have the cats to take care of too. Well the D.F. is quite deceptive that way! We ended up having to take the Metro two stops over and then switching to the Metrobus for a 45 min. ride. It was long but the good thing was that we now understand how the Metrobus works–live and learn.

Anyway on Wednesday, we met everyone at the hotel and were bussed over to UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) where the day’s activities were to be held. We had more introduction time and some sessions on Mexico’s history and U.S./Mexico relations. These things were all very interesting but the whole thing was in Spanish and, although my Spanish comprehension is already light years ahead of where it was when we got here, it’s still difficult sometimes to understand people if they speak quickly and/or mumble and it so happened that some people did in the morning sessions. Nevertheless, the parts that I got of it were very interesting and having powerpoint presentations to go along with the lectures helped immensely! After the morning sessions, we ate at a café on UNAM’s campus and then took a brief tour of the university. I say brief because UNAM is HUGE! Many of the buildings have murals associated with them that have a special significance to México.

This entire building is covered with a mural!

I really loved this one.

The stadium at UNAM, which we also toured, was built for the 1968 Olympic games.

The mural on the stadium was created by Diego Rivera.

Apparently, underground tunnels were built in case an emergency escape was necessary. We did not get to see the tunnels, however!

On Wednesday evening, the U.S. Embassy hosted a reception for the Fulbright grantees. It was very nice–lots of wine, haha! Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed so I was not able to take pictures.

Thursday began again at UNAM and I really enjoyed the morning sessions. A couple of people associated with the U.S. Embassy came and told us about opportunities that we have to work with them and resources that they have available for us and those with whom we might be working during the course of our grant period. Then, author and journalist David Lida talked to us about life in Mexico City. He is the author of a book about Mexico City, which we promptly bought after his talk. He was funny, enlightening, and very helpful.

We are very excited to begin reading this!

After Lida spoke, we heard about grant experiences from former Fulbright grantees, which was interesting and reassuring. It’s nice to hear crazy stories from others that have been through this experience and to know that they survived and that it was well worth it!

After lunch Wednesday, we toured Ex-Convento del Carmen. It is an ex-convent (obviously) that has now been turned into a museum. It’s extremely old and very beautiful.

I love this style of architecture!

Very old bell in that tower!

Thanks to Medieval music history, I could actually transcribe this piece for you if needed 😉

Finally, we visited mummies that were in the church! I really couldn’t resist taking a picture.

This guy looked like he died a long and painful death!

Thursday night was a dinner at the hotel for the Fulbright Garcia-Roblés grantees (there are different kinds of Fulbright grants, but this is the type that I have), Fulbright grantees that are going to the U.S. from Mexico, and former grantees that did their grants in the U.S. They tried to sit us at tables with people who are in our same professions, so I met a very nice violinist who offered help in any way while I’m here, as well as free tickets to his orchestra’s concerts 🙂

Friday was the final day of orientation and we spent it sightseeing. We toured the Palacio Nacional and then broke off to do our own thing. Jeff and I went on a tour of Templo Mayor, ancient ruins right in the historic center of the city, with some other people.

The main center of the Palacio Nacional

One of the main attractions at the Palacio are the murals by Diego Rivera that tell the history of Mexico. I can't even begin to describe how amazing they are!

We had the most wonderful tour guide that thoroughly explained all of the murals. And it was all in Spanish and we understood everything!

Templo Mayor: Jeff really liked the still-intact serpent.

It was kind of strange to be walking around inside something so OLD!

It's hard to capture the whole thing because you can walk through it and see levels, but this is a pretty good overview shot.

All in all, it was a great week and we really enjoyed seeing more of the city and getting to know some new people!

New blog site!

Hello All!

Since you’re here, I guess you’ve figured out that we are using WordPress now instead of Blogger. This site is working MUCH better than Blogger and we can actually post photos without it taking lots of time and many tries. I’m sorry we haven’t blogged this week. The post I just put up (Toilet paper, cantinas, and clowns, oh my!) was actually ready to go on Monday but we were having awful problems with Blogger. I had my Fulbright orientation all of this week, so Jeff and I were never home and had no time to play around with fixing the blog. At any rate, we are all set now and I will post again tomorrow to catch everyone up on our week!

Toilet paper, cantinas, and clowns, oh my!

The beginning of this blog post is not for the faint of heart, so WARNING before continuing to read!

OK, so Jeff wrote a little before about my first day at the ENM but what he didn’t say was that after taking a metro that was too far away, not being able to find a pasero to take us to ENM and having to walk an extra long way instead, I get to school, find a restroom and there are…NO PAPER PRODUCTS WHATSOEVER. Luckily, I carry Kleenex. Anyway, I thought maybe it was just a fluke. But then again in a different restroom on a different day, the same situation. So, I wanted to know for sure what the deal was before posting about it. I didn’t want to find out that there was some magical closet somewhere to the Narnia of toilet paper in the school but as it turns out, public schools in Mexico do not keep paper products. It was explained to me that it comes from a sort of (antiquated) notion that students will waste it and use it to toilet paper things, etc. Well. As far as I’m concerned, that is no good reason! Nevertheless, I have no say in the matter so you will hereafter find me with a roll of toilet paper in my bag with flute and music.

On to more cheerful topics! Last Friday night, we went out with our friend Rebecca and a friend of hers from work, Rodolfo. We went to a fabulous taco place near where we live (and I ate A LOT. No really, it was kind of embarrassing.) Then, they took us to our first Mexican cantina. It was super full and we had to wait for awhile before we could sit at a table but we finally got one and when we did, we were serenaded with four songs by a singer that came into the bar with guitar and list of songs in hand. Apparently, singers wander in and out of the bars and cantinas selling songs to people there. And it gets better. Not only do singers do this, but also these other fine gentleman with cajas de toques. These are boxes with two metal handles that produce an electric shock. Yes, you read correctly. People pay these men to have an electric shock! Apparently, they’re especially popular at bars because of course, people have too much to drink and dare their friends to take the shock. Of course, it obviously is not enough to really hurt anyone, just apparently enough to give you a tingle in your arms. Still…I’m not sure I will be taking that dare! 

caja de toque

Yesterday, we walked over to Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Forest), a huge park across the street from where we live. The park not only has lots of room for walking, running, sitting, etc., but also has a zoo and several museums. We were attempting to go to one museum in particular but they are closed for renovations, so we went to the Museo de Arte Moderno instead. We really loved it! The exhibit we checked out was of Neomexicanismo art, most pieces from the 1980’s. It was very interesting. Museums are free on Sundays here, which is great and many people take advantage of it.

Museo de Arte Moderno

 

interesting depiction of Cortés

They had a piñata room!

However, before we got to the museum, we did have one other adventure. We were walking through the park, minding our own business, when we came upon a man dressed as a clown entertaining a crowd of adults and kids. Me, being an idiot, stopped to take a picture. Well, I still apparently can’t remember how much us gringos stick out because the clown almost immediately singled us out and drew us into his show, haha! Nothing too embarrassing really but he made sure to pair us with other people and tease us about it, lol. Jeff so kindly (sarcasm) took a ton of pictures of me with my partner (he had the camera, so I have no proof of his dance humiliation!) so I am including one of them below. As I have said before, every day here is an adventure!

Yeah, this was a tango. Kind of. My dance partner was a much better dancer than me!

El hombre de gas (revisited)

The gas man sounds (sort of) like a very elongated version of the first word of this.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want…

          As is customary is ANY new locale, not everything works immediately like clockwork . For example, we had plans to visit the City Auditorium to see Fritz Lang’s classic, expressionist, sci-fi film Metropolis with the score performed live by the México City Phil., but on the morning of the concert we were chagrined to find out that the tickets promptly sold out. I can’t think of any large arts venue in the US (showing something comparable) that would have sold out…maybe for John Williams and Star Wars, but not for an art film, at least not in a large venue. Well, now we know (early in our adventures) to get our tickets in advance where possible. Fortunately, there are plenty more recitals and orchestra concerts.
          We also planned to run in Chapultepec Forest (bosque), but the altitude here makes for thinner air, to which we are not accustomed. Thus, an approximately 1.5-2 mile run on a previous morning turned out to be grueling! (An aside: I suppose that we’ll eventually switch over to the Metric system, but it’s a slow process where we’re only just starting to measure in grams at the grocery, butcher, tortilla maker, etc. When we go back to the US, people will think that we’re drug dealers, yay! [read: more sarcasm.]) We are going to keep running to see if we can get used to it. It’s a strange sensation to run and feel like you breathe deeply, but you only get a shallow-breath’s-supply of air. To us, 3 breaths take the place of 1 good, deep breath.
          Also, two nights ago we ran out of water. No, “those wacky, spoiled gringos” did not overuse the water, ALL of our building was without. We weren’t really worried because apparently this happens occasionally, but we hoped that this was the common scenario and not the rare situation where we would need a plumber. We therefore did not get up to run that morning because we didn’t know if the shower would be available, but the water came back by the afternoon and we were able to shower away all of those worries along with dirt, oil, and dead skin cells.
           “No, you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find [that] you get what you need!” ~ The Rolling Stones (fade out)…
          We’re getting in shape (hopefully) to run on Calle Reforma, which is closed to automobile traffic on Sundays from 8-2 to become a bike and pedestrian pathway. Though we did not make it out there for a run (or bike ride…more on that in a later post) we did visit Reforma by way of the popular area Zona Rosa!
          I think that I speak for both of us when I say that neither of us were enchanted with Zona Rosa, which is upscale and touristy. We did like the specific area designated for antique shops, though we only felt safe to window shop. Zona Rosa is also home to a major GLBT community, particularly their nightclubs, but primarily we recognized all of the following familiar entities: Marriott, Sheridan, Best Western, Hertz, McDonald’s, Chili’s (really!!!!!???? A Chili’s in México? WHY!?), Starbucks, KFC, a mall, and so forth. To quote Mary E., “¡Que horrible!”
          There are some decent shops and restaurants there too, to be sure. We probably won’t go back without taking guests, but it’s convenient to know what’s there. We walked around a bit, bought an inexpensive DVD that will work on the Region 4 encoded Blu-ray player in our apartment (Our US & Canada Region 1 movies will not play here. The movie that we purchased is Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s Hable con Ella because we really enjoyed his film Volver), visited El Ángel (the angel of México’s independence), and capped off the day with some frozen yoghurt.
          The Angel is really cool and a symbol of pride for the whole city. There, Mary E mocked my camera skills, but (in my defense) it is really hard to get a full subject’s body in the photo along with the full vista of the statue.
           As regards froyo, the flavors here are vastly different from the ones in the US. Some of the choices included lychee (lichi) (an asian fruit), Méxican cajeta (like caramel, sort of), cinnamon, plantains, toasted almonds, etc. The yoghurt was ok, but we prefer helado!
          There is also a market there, but we’ve learned that it’s overpriced compared to the other mercados in the city, and the vendor’s are pushy there too. We much prefer the mercado in Coyoacán. In fact, we recently went back there and purchased a few small things for the apartment, but we can write more about that another time.

More School??!!

I know I’m posting a second blog for today, so I hope our readers won’t mind! As Jeff already mentioned, I have now been to school a couple of times and think we might have finally found a good way to actually get there, which is good. For those of you who are reading and don’t know why we’re here, I was lucky enough to receive a Fulbright grant to do research and performance of contemporary Mexican music for flute this year with one of the forerunners of contemporary music here, flutist/composer Alejandro Escuer. ENM (Escuela Nacional de Música) started classes last week and Friday was my first day there. I’m not actually enrolled in classes but will be participating in Alejandro’s Seminario de Análisis, which meets on Fridays. It was a very interesting class but it’s very strange to sit in on a class in a foreign language. I was actually pretty happy because I was able to follow along relatively well, but there were definitely some things that went over my head! Overall, I think it will be very interesting and will definitely be helpful in learning Spanish.

Tuesdays are “flute days” at ENM, which I attended today. Alejandro does group lessons here, which means that on Tuesdays, there is a large block of time where he teaches everyone in the studio. Students can come and go as they please so lessons are open. It’s very different than what I’m used to but I found it very useful for getting to know the teaching style and I enjoyed getting to hear everyone in the studio play. The piece that I have been working first since being here is one that needs editing, so Alejandro and I will be working on editing it for the composer, which is pretty cool. I’m currently making a list of pieces to learn—it’s looking like it’s going to be a busy but hopefully productive year!

On a side note, remember a previous blog where Jeff mentioned that there are people that walk around the streets and have specific calls for selling their wares? Well there is one call that Jeff and I have laughed about since being here because it’s a guy that (and we have no idea what he is actually saying) calls out much like how Jeff likes to mimic Lois’ father in Family Guy on the episode where he says, “Weelllllll, guess it’s time to be saddlin’ on up!” We finally saw the man today and it turns out that he is the gas man. If you buy gas for your stove and hot water you have to listen for his call, which really does sound like “Weeeelllllllll!” For those of you who know Jeff, you know that he thinks this is awesome!

Vamos a la playa…or, er, la escuela

We’ve now taken almost every form of public transportation available in the city: the Metro (México’s subway [though we found out today that some lines go above ground like the “T” in Boston]), Metrobús (which is actually like a subway-bus-hybrid because they run on reserved lanes in the center of the street, and their terminals are like mini-subway stations in the middle of the street at various intersections along North-South or East-West lines), and Paseo (which are little busses that run more like traditional commuter busses, or “the short bus”, that we have in the U.S., except that each Paseo lists the direction that they travel and the stops that they make on the front side of the bus, but there isn’t really a system to it, so no Paseo driver knows anyone else’s route but their own!)

Good luck trying to find information on Paseos online!

I think that the only other forms of transportation are other kinds of busses than the Metrobús, but we haven’t been able to figure out their system yet. In some ways, they seem like large Paseos because many of them list their stops in the same way, but I know that they are not the same, and I’m not sure what the difference is or how to find out.

If it sounds confusing…it is! Well, it is if you’re a gringo like us.

Mary E’s school is “conveniently” (read: sarcasm) located a bit out of the way from all of these forms of transportation. Right now it seems like our best bet is to travel a bit longer (and technically out of the way) on the Metro, with one line-change, and then our Metro stop (General Anaya on Linea 2) is about a 15 minute walk to the school. The walk is along a park in what seems to be a nice enough area of Coyoacán. It’s possible that we can hitch a Paseo to go between the stop and the school, but we’re not going to travel in a fashion that is too complicated, too quickly. The past times that we’ve attempted to go back and forth, if we try to take a more direct route, we sometimes end up taking all 3 of the above modes of transportation with some considerable walking anyway. The method that I just mentioned seems like the simplest solution (i.e. taking the Metro a little out of the way and then walking back a bit, which doesn’t really cost us any more time than any other option that we’ve seen so far.)

Mary E’s school, Escuela Nacional de Música (of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), or ENM/UNAM (ENM), appears to consist of 2 large, stone buildings. The main building consists of classrooms, a library, a cafeteria, offices, a little bookstore, and other yet unexplored areas. Once inside, you can walk outside again from the direction of the office across a fenced-in courtyard to an annex building with rehearsal rooms, practice rooms, and again, other unexplored areas. The main building is interesting because, once inside, you’re still technically outside (there’s no roof!) There are areas that are under cover, like the library, and there are awnings that surround the classroom hallways (3 floors of rooms), but I must admit that it is strange to walk inside a building and see people smoking because, at that point, you’re still really outside (and it will be very weird when it rains INSIDE!)

Like I said in my previous post, I’ll have to let Mary E tell you more about her experiences so far at ENM, which are more substantial than mine. In my first visit, I felt overwhelmed, like a fish out of water. I walked around and found some interesting areas and offices, but I felt my inability to communicate more than I have since we arrived here. It’s one thing to be able to buy food, other goods, or tell a waiter that the food tastes great or you’re full, but here, I find myself in a research institution of the field in which I specialize, and I just kind of choked up and felt very shy.

Since then, I have now met Mary E’s teacher, Dr. Alejandro Escuer, who was very kind in recommending that I get in touch with a trombonist friend of his, and who is interested in having me play some contemporary tuba music for his modern music class (and hopefully working with some composers, if they are intrigued by my choice in music). I also met the tuba teacher and player of the Mexico City Phil, Dwight Sullinger, who is a long-time friend of my former teacher, Don Harry, at Eastman. He took Mary E and me out to lunch, and we chatted for a while about music and México City. I will hopefully get to observe him teach and play, and maybe do some teaching myself, if I’m lucky. Today is my second time at ENM, and I was much more productive and comfortable, and I imagine Mary E had a better experience too.

So much food…so little time.

Tuesdays are rapidly becoming one of our favorite days because there is a wonderful outdoor market that occurs just about a block away from our apartment! We’ve included a photo of what we bought this time (and Schubert inspecting the goods as per usual), all of which cost us about $10 USD. Don’t let our shopping success fool you, we are still sticking out like a sore thumb, but we are doing our best to be inconspicuous by carrying lots of small change (even though cien pesos [$100 MEX] = only about $9 USD, it’s not always necessarily that any particular vendor will carry sufficient change for the bill) and learning the names of the vegetables en Español. Our not wanting to be seen as turistas is partially why we don’t have photos of the actual market (the other part is that I’m lazy.)

This time we even bought a few dulces (not only does México have tons of history and culture, but perhaps most importantly they have wonderfully decadent sweets.) So far we’ve been having a lot of fruit for breakfast (which is the norm): cantaloupe and papaya; and with the rest of our bounty, we made a homemade marinara sauce for spaghetti and we also made ranchero sauce that we’ve been putting on tacos, tostadas, enchiladas, and eggs (huevos rancheros!) [By the way, spell check in English is perplexed by the word tostada and wants it to be “dastard”!]

“We now interrupt your regularly scheduled reading to bring you your weekly gringo moment…the jalapeños that we bought at the market were so picante that after I boiled them, I think I went through almost an entire box of tissues!”

Even though Coyoacán was the title of our last post, we’ve actually been back twice since our first week. Recently, we met a new friend who lives there, Rebecca, and she kindly took us out to dinner at a Cantina and gave us some insider tips on the City. At the cantina, we tried some yummy appetizers with Cactus (nopales) and chicharrón, and then the bartender (or owner?) came over to chat with us and generously let us taste Mezcal, which is an indigenous alcoholic beverage. This particular Mezcal tasted smokier than tequila, but packed a punch. As is traditional, this Mezcal was from Oaxaca, and was also served traditionally with orange slices and a special mixture that includes chili powder, salt, and fried larvae! (This is not my favorite beverage, but still very interesting.) After the meal, we walked around a bit and got amazing churros. Apparently, Coyoacán is THE PLACE for churros, which were much better than the ones that are sold in our colonia. Mine contained a dulce de leche filling and Mary E’s had chocolate, but we might have to go back and try all of the fillings, in due time.

Today Mary E had her first class at the Escuela Nacional de Música, also in Coyoacán, but I think that I will let her tell you all about it…same Méxican time, same Méxican channel. Things slow down a bit this weekend for us, here is an impression of me doing my share of the cleaning: