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.
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:
