Observations at a Café on a Friday Evening

Last night, my boyfriend and I went to one of the cafés in town to hang out for a while with the owners, friends of ours, and play a few games of Chromino without the stupid dog jumping up and upsetting the pieces. We get to the café, sit down, order and break out the forest green bag.

Now, I know I've had my fair share of café conversations where I probably sound like a loud twat to the people sitting nearby. We all have those conversations - loud, random, somewhat intellectual but mostly just predictable conversations with people, be they good friends or those with whom we just start talking cos they're there, that are kind of fun but mostly just familiar (How can you NOT like (insert book, author, movie, director, etc)? or I know, it was SO great about (random political and/or cultural event)...

I actually like having conversations like these, even if they are ultimately kind of vapid and pointless. And I think they're necessary, especially for people with academic interests, to feel like they're not just rotting away in their own mental masturbation. I can safely say that after 8 years of being a regular patron of various cafés in Boston, Montreal, and now here in Guanajuato, it's a haven that I am not willing to relinquish. You get a break from your usual apartment surroundings, from the feeling of confinement that comes from being somewhere you know far too well. You take out your book or notebook, or find the newspaper or an old magazine, and settle in. Someone is there to immediately make you a nice drink, and you never know who or what you will come across.

For better or worse.

So, anyway, we start to play Chromino, and the only other people in the café, seated in the corner just would. not. shut. up. For, like, an hour and a half. Some of their topics of perambulating, intentionally inoffensive "let's make friends cos you have a Mac" conversation included, but were not exclusive to

1. A hatred of trivial formalities and useless chatter (ironically)
   
2. Various zodiactic musings
3. The importance of life not being too "easy" (defined as being able to run errands and transport your groceries in a car)
   
4. Needing to make the most of every day i.e. not sit at home when there are Things to be Productive About
   
5. Not dwelling on negativity but being ready to, quote, move on to the next thing before the negativity happens
6. Russian women and inherent hotness therein, yet, somehow, they are so emotionally distant, and what's with that

Participants in this discussion were: Young Mexican Man with a Mac, Older White Gentleman Who Has Experienced It All with a Graying Pompadour, Much Younger Mexican Girlfriend of Older Gentleman.

Ruins and Tourists and Holes, Oh My!

On my third trip to Mexico City last weekend, I FINALLY made it to Teotihuacán - that place that every kid in Mexico (or, at least, the ones who can afford it) goes to on a field trip when they are in elementary school.

Museums are free on Sundays for Mexican citizens, and although I am still mired in the paperwork for my work permit, I am most certainly a Mexican citizen when passing through museum gates on a Sunday. Here, in pictures, are the highlights of a fun day getting sunburnt.


1) There are all these random tunnels that go through a small line of of barriers that line the Avenue of the Dead - the main street that transverses the ruins. So, of course, I climbed through one. A great idea if you are three. Not such a great idea if you are twenty three. And keep banging, alternately, your head and knees on the stone. Even when you try to crab-walk through. There were four or five of these that I could have gone through, but one was enough.




2) They sold little kid bow and arrows in the parking lot, in the gift shop area, and about every 10 meters or so throughout the ruins. And although I am not seven years old, I wanted one. Seriously, they looked awesome. Also - the thing on a pole behind those kids? There are trained professionals, dressed in their native outfits (someone told me from Veracruz) who twirl all the way down to the ground in a controlled decline while one of them plays a pipe. It is pretty impressive.




3) A cop chilling during his shift on the Pyramid of the Sun. Which only took 5 or 10 minutes to climb. Third largest pyramid in the world, y'all.