Saturday July 26th, 2008

-$1 papaya and banana for breakfast, eaten in the Parque de Santa Maria

-$28.70 Po Box rental for ‘6 months’ and 10 stamps good for passage to the US

-$1.95 3 post cards, including Metro map

-$25.30 Guia Roji and 3 post cards at Sanborns

-$3.20 a few clove ciggies and lighter

-$ 1.70 cafecito

-$1.80 cheese and chicharron gordita for lunch (yum!)

-$.20 metro fare

-Dinner: $.16 tomato $.55 avocato $1.6 cheese $.11 bread

-To have in stock: 5 liter H2O $1.40 and granola bars $2.75 $.34 gum



Thoughts for today:

-Fresh papaya and a banana make the best breakfast.

-Entreating eyes make big headway when it comes to beaurocratic details, ie. Apartado/PO Box.

-I am an old man when it comes to park sitting at 10 am. We sit and watch. While everyone else practices boxing, learns to ride bikes, walks their dogs, or does some kind of tai chi class.

-Everything takes less time when you are alone. I must typically talk a lot, because I feel so silent. Eating especially goes by quickly- I am no longer a slow eater. Apparently I was always just a big talker.

-Little things really do add the dimension and vibrancy to life- like noticing the clouds reflected in my cup of coffee, buying a single clove cigarette for 5 pesos, buying fresh dinner for $2.21 after successfully finding the nearest super, playing cards with kids in a language that is none of your first tongues, needing to have your hot french landlord let you in when you can’t get the lock to work late at night- and have him wearing a honest to god sand-man-esqu long nightgown.

-I must be really sedentary usually, in spite of the biking, because I’ve been walking all day the last two days, and whoo!

-Metro systems rock. I notice we are all clutching our purses or shopping bags furtively.. are we all just scared of each other or is there really that much risk?

-Lots of thoughts about the squatters town that seems to have sprung up around the monumento de la madre. I took photos, but why did I not go in and talk to anyone about what they were protesting? The regal and enormous carved madre figure towering above these protesters “of four hundred villages”reminded me of the emotionally evocative ‘maternal’ section at the Museo de Arte Moderna that I saw earlier today. Some where sweet, but the huge majority were wistful, tragic, exhausted. Mexicans seem to have a more honest popular understanding of parenthood.

-I adore the painting “Inner City” by Alice, R-something. Also Cabezas Religiosas and The Pledge (can’t remember the word in Spanish right now). Oh! La mandata.

-The art made me feel so much, I honestly placed my hand across my sternum to Contain, and commenced to sweat like crazy. I have been getting brief fevers recently when I feel deeply, I swear its true. And I don’t think I’m getting sick, though I am tired. I felt the kind of intense passion and then exhaustion that I can only compare to an adrenaline rush or incredible orgasm. After looking at just the permanent collection I needed a nap- so I took one in the sun of the outdoor sculpture garden; a reclining woman among many other more abstract android figures.

I need to remember when I am sad, or stuck in a rainstorm to go back to this museum. The ceiling looks like a huge glowing combination of the moon and sun- I don’t know how. Its free for students, as is the Contemporary Art Museum across the street in another park. I enjoyed that one too- but something about the paintings in Chapultapec pleased me more. Maybe because they asked less of me. It was amazing to see Jeff Wall’s photographs though, which we studied briefly in my photograpahy class. It was strange to contrast these images from Vancouver Canada- the dumpy heart of north american laid bare, the snow, with Mexican art and life surrounding me. Which do I identify with more?

-Why don’t I sing out load by myself more? Why be self conscious when you are alone…

-I want to raise my kids for a big chunk of their childhood while they are abroad. It is amazing how Jade and Oskar jump so fluidly between three languages, having spent time in the Philippines and here, and speaking French with their parents. I have rarely seen such well adjusted, confident, and easily social children in my life. They are already better travelled than the majority of my friends, and they aren’t even close to being teenagers.