Chapter 6: Stationary

In large part, I knocked out most of the major tourist attractions in the first 3 weeks. In the past couple, I’ve had a more relaxed schedule – each morning, working on the blog (it’s actually a chingo¹Most direct translation: a fuckload of effort to write this thing), then visiting more obscure attractions in the afternoon. I’ve spent quite a lot of time wandering around the streets of Roma and Condesa, finding new gems amidst the broad, leafy avenidas. I’ve gotten to know the taqueros at some of my favorite spots; they know my order as soon as I walk up.

At some point while traveling, the adventures start to blend together, and it’s tougher to tell what stands out. In the first couple of days, meeting Diana and Don Antonio in the hostel and chatting with them in Spanish was the height of adventure. Now it’s become the norm. 

Similarly, I’ve met so many new people in hostels and shared so many nights with them that it’s become a routine. I went with hostel friends to watch NBA Finals games 5 and 6, and met a host of new people each time. I finally got around to taking salsa lessons – estilo cubano – at a club called Mama Rumba. Many nights ended up on new rooftops with new friends, who wanted to drink, smoke and kick it until 3 or 4 in the morning. 

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Itzel and I continued dating. She has a dream of opening a hostel in Coyoacán, and aspires to have tours throughout the city she adores. Naturally, she’s been taking me to the same locations – to test foreigner sentiment. We spent a night at a 4 story pulqueria²Pulquerias are places that sell Pulque, the traditional pre-hispanic drink mentioned in Chapter 4. In general, adding -ería to the end of a product makes it into a store. Tacos, Taquería. Mezcal, Mezcalería. You get it. with a different niche on each floor. We took a tour through the Zócalo, stopping by a street filled with graffiti and cheap beer, her favorite mezcalería, and a rooftop bar that was featured in the fresa³See the Urban Dictionary definition reality show Hecho en Mexico⁴Reality show covering the lives of some fresas in CDMX – available on Netflix, and delivered entirely in Spanglish. Dating has never been so fun, or so… productive. We only speak in Spanish, and she shows me spots in the city I would never find on my own. It’s been incredible spending time with her and her family. 

We’ve also been on the same page about the relationship. She’s leaving the city soon anyway – after she finishes her thesis in the next couple weeks, she’s going on vacation with her family for a month, and then moving to Barcelona for a couple years of grad school. She wasn’t looking for anything serious either. I get the sense that this was as perfect for her as it was for me.

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This weekend, I went on a roadtrip with Itzel and friends to Cuernavaca, Estacas and Tepotzlán. I was struck by how regular it felt, how much it reminded me of all the weekend trips I’d taken from Los Angeles with my friend Helen. We bought food for the weekend, cooked, drank beers, played board games, relaxed under verdant mango trees and swam through nearby rivers. We were in Mexico, and the conversation in Spanish, but the vibe evoked memories of recent trips to Death Valley or the Channel Islands. 

We got back to the city late, and I had the recognizable feeling of returning to the familiar. Mexico City has stopped being a destination for me, and become a home away from home, in the same way that Shanghai, Helsinki, Detroit or San Diego were at different points in my life. I’ve stayed here long enough, and made enough friends, that I’m sad to leave. Surprisingly, given the short amount of time I’ve been here, there are plenty of people who are sad to see me leave, too.  

Miscellaneous Notes: 

• Mexico City has reminded me more of Shanghai than anywhere else, including any other city in Latin America. It’s massive on the same scale as Shanghai, and a city of contrasts. The public transit is also very well developed – the bike system, with its tricky traffic law quiz, is probably one of the most stringent in the world. 
• I’ve used Spanish overwhelmingly, and I’m probably at my Spanish peak at the moment. However, I’m hitting a plateau – I can communicate sufficiently, I can get my points across, but I’m not eloquent, and I still make a lot of mistakes. I absolutely see the need for more formal studying, whether it’s just sitting myself down and going through all the verb tenses for a given word, or more formal classes. 
• Blogging has taken up a lot of time in the past 2 weeks. I’ve been fortunate that I have had time to spend, but I don’t think it’s sustainable to write in this volume and detail for the whole year. I’m hitting the tradeoff between time spent writing about the adventures, and time spent living them and practicing Spanish. Now that I’m leaving Mexico City and really traveling, I’ll try to improve in a couple ways. First, I’m going to try to keep the blog more up to date – I’ve had a time delay of two weeks the whole first month. It’s a lot more effort to write about events from weeks ago then the experiences of yesterday. The full range of emotion just isn’t there. Second, I’m going to write less. Hopefully, this will lead to more concise, focused stories, and take less time to publish. 
• Another of my initiatives was to read about the country I’m in while in it. It’s never more interesting than when you’re there! I was inspired by reading “Turn Right at Machu Picchu” while hiking toward Machu Picchu. This time around, I got a bit too ambitious – I started off trying to read “Like Water for Chocolate”, a classic Mexican novel, in Spanish. Unfortunately I’m just not at that level yet, and the book was more difficult than it was fun to read. Through a book exchange, I’ve switched to reading “Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal” – much more fun. This also indicates my Spanish is around a 6th grade level. More topical reads will have to be in English at the moment. 
• In Chapter 1, I said that I would try to avoid hostels where possible, but that’s exactly where I’ve spent the past 3 weeks. I feel like this has been necessary given my focus on dating life. I haven’t had sufficient time to hang out with a potential host. It’s just not in the spirit of couchsurfing to use the host as a place to crash, and nothing else. I’ll try to get away from hostels more in the future as I can.
• Still, spending time in the hostel has had the usual effect of exposing me to a wide variety of people (though mostly westerners). I’ve met undergrad students, law students, nurses, straight up vagabonds, video producers, and other people between work. I’ve also met a fair number of digital nomads. The digital nomad life has never been something I’d thought about seriously, but I absolutely see the appeal now. Living in the hostel, saving tons of money, knocking out reasonable hours of work, and then having a new set of friends who want to see the city every night – it could be a spectacular lifestyle.
• Spending the past 5 weeks in Mexico City has eased me into the trip. I haven’t really been traveling just yet so much as… living somewhere else. Thanks to everyone who has impacted my journey so far: Itzel and fam, Arid, Diego, Ximena, Eric, Alfonso, Maggie, Don Antonio, Diego, Gerardo, Catalina, Jason and the Bain squad, Harry, Joe, Christian, Camilo, Nipun, Joe, Arsalan, Jesun, Shashank and the rest of the Americans, Olivia, Margarette, Josephine, Paxton, Johnny, Lily, Beth, Justin, Gert, Richie, Ryan, Ian, Diana.