¡La fiesta en la casa de los nuevos!

Last night was very long, but so much fun! We left our apartment at about 7:30 P.M. and walked across the colonia to a cantina specializing in cuisine from the Yucatan Peninsula. There was some debate as to whether or not this particular cantina has the best and most authentic food from that region in the city (next to actually going to Mérida), but there was no question that the food was splendid. Here in D.F., they eat a lot of meat, which makes sense given the location in the country, but interestingly enough in Mérida, despite their proximity to the ocean, in addition to seafood they also eat a lot of meat...A LOT!

Mary-Elizabeth ordered some food with which we were familiar and have become some of our favorites: sopa di lima and panuchos de cochinita. I don't remember the particular details, but there are very specific differences between lemons, limes, and green lemons. I ordered some other traditional food that we had yet to try: sopa de maderna (bone marrow soup) and los papadzules, which are enchilada-like, stuffed with hard boiled egg, and topped with an interesting sauce that I believe contained processed nuts.

We had long conversations with many new friends on so many topics that my brain reached its capacity early in the evening. As for what I remember, apparently it is common for everyone to have a one-or-two-word nickname. For us, we were of course "los nuevos", and we got teased with the following chant: "¡La fiesta en la casa de los nuevos!" or simply "¡Los nuevos! ¡Los nuevos!" Everyone was joking in a fun way, however, as regards the word "casa", we also learned another interesting factoid. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the expression "Mi casa es su casa" ("My house is your house."), as are we, and I have always interpreted that saying to mean something like "Anything that I have is also yours if you want or need it." Here that expression can actually be taken literally, and apparently if one says that the party is at "su casa", it can actually be quite confusing as to the actual location of the party, since my house IS your house, and vice versa!

We stayed up talking until close to 5:00 A.M., which is a first for me, but apparently not uncommon in México City. At that point, we called a Taxi Mex radio cab, which came quickly and took us right home for a very reasonable price. Today we've been laying low and trying to recuperate from a fun, but exhausting night.