The Sun Came Out!

The last few weeks have seen a lot of rain and overcast skies here. The rain situation across the whole country has actually been terrible this weekend, with widespread flooding in several states, destruction of towns and loss of life. Here in CDMX it seemed to mainly flood the Metro system and any sunken roadway, which makes traffic. (But everything makes traffic here.) The mood of people generally seemed to be a little more annoyed, a little quicker to honk horns in gridlock. I even saw two men get into a literal fistfight after a small collision between a car and a bicycle. This happened on our street after a box truck sheered off a massive limb of a tree, dropping it onto some power lines, dangling dangerously over Avenida Nuevo Leon. Eventually a fleet of bomberos arrived, but it was probably a good 30 minutes of rush hour traffic swerving around tree branches and electrical cables. It was an extraordinary enough event that many passersby stopped to look or take a photo. But there was also a steady wave of commuter cyclists pouring down the street nearly running directly into the power lines as it got dark, even after the police closed the road to traffic. Lots of horns honking and police blowing their whistles. This story would not surprise any Chilango. They say "Mexico, Mexico" or sometimes the slightly more vulgar "Pinche Mexico, te amo." Basically, this place is crazy, but people love it, despite that or maybe because of that.

I had to navigate the medical system for the first time. One of the kids got sick, but we were able to get a doctor to come to the house, provide a thorough exam, and give me a list of medicine. I went across the street to one of three pharmacies on the street. There are much cheaper ways to do this, but even with name brand medicine and a house call from an English speaking doctor, the total cash price was still under $200 US. 

So rainy season is winding down, hopefully we will be back out doing fun things around the city in the coming weeks and all of our family members will be feeling better. 

One Month

It has been a month. El tiempo ha pasado rapidísimo. Walk Spanish language school was intense and at times exhausting. We arrived on a Sunday night and started Monday morning. Getting homeschool kids who generally enjoy a very relaxed schedule, up and to a cafe at a different location each day, in CDMX traffic, by 9 am was a challenge. However, it turned out to be an overwhelmingly positive experience. We loved our teachers, and the instruction was fun but challenging. They spoke to us in Spanish almost all the time, offering explanations in English as necessary. I have several years of Spanish study under my belt- I studied Spanish in high school, and worked in a bilingual school for two years. Oral fluency has long been challenging for me, but I can read and understand fairly well. The kids were basically coming in cold with a few weeks of Duolingo practice and exposure to whatever Lucha Libre matches M shared with them. This made their growth over a few weeks especially exciting. 

We finished school each day around 1 and for the most part began our journey back to the apartment straight away, often on foot. If the walk is less than an hour, you may as well just walk, to save yourself the trouble getting gridlocked in an Uber. Getting groceries, finding dry outdoor places for Max to run around in, figuring out what to do with trash and recycling...all of these little daily tasks take a lot of thought. Bathrooms are very common in sit down cafes and restaurants and are free. But in the parks you need some coins to get access. They are staffed by someone who will hand you a few squares of toilet paper. Not actually a bad system as the public restrooms remain clean and safe, but I found that I needed a lot more coins to account for four people using the bathroom when we go out. 

It is rainy season, the rainiest rainy season in the history of meteorology here. It is often sunny in the morning and will rain somewhere in the city at some point in the afternoon most days. Sometimes, though, the rain is widespread and heavy. Umbrellas are sometimes forbidden in the museums, as are backpacks. But you definitely want to carry a full arsenal of umbrellas and ponchos at all times, so bring extra pesos for the bag check. But don't leave anything valuable in that bag, so bring a secondary, small bag to bring your wallet and phone with you. If you do not bring a poncho it is guaranteed to rain on you. 

I designated a week to be a sort of rest week, to catch up on non-Spanish school work and clean the apartment and try to figure out some more meals to cook at home. We also connected with some of the homeschoolers/unschoolers here and are trying out some of the activities they do. Parkour was a big hit.