feliz cumpleaños

 this year was a good year. 

there have been a lot of changes. 

some hard changes,

but a lot of good changes.

all in all, 

year 27 was not bad. 

year 28, 

i think, 

will be a good year.

i mean, it started with some churros for breakfast. 

that is a pretty good start, i think.

(thanks mexico!)

and day one ended with 

a tamarind, mezcal, and chili cocktail. 

fabulous. 

and, obviously, 

cjb loved my present so much 

he thought it was his own.

this is what is left.

obviously he is still playing with the stick and ribbons.

too flippin' cute.

bring it on year 28.

i'm ready to do this thing.

dominicans in mexico

omg. 

they totally love each other.

hello, my name is hubert.

so i think we can all agree that i am a bit of a fatty.

and by a bit of a fatty i mean

a HUGE fatty.

so do you think living in mexico is going to stop me 

from enjoying the fattiest holiday there is?

obviously not. 

 

it didn't stop me in england either.

   

 so i made my thanksgiving list

and got as much of it as i could at the superama.

but surprisingly, superama doesn't have everything.

lame.

so i went to the market with jj.

which is where i picked up hubert.

hubert is looking pretty classy in this picture. 

when i met him he had his feet and head still attached. 

crazy, awesome, gross. 

but now he is stuffed with figs, an onion and an orange. 

and he looks down right sexy.

and yes, 

he is upside down.

cause that's how i roll.

no dry white meat here, 

thankyouverymuch.

but this market was pretty cool -- 

each stall sells something a little different

and it is all crazy cheap. 

ps. i may have bought the best cinnamon ever at this market.

it is super sexy delicious.

 

rcg and i spent all day friday cooking up this feast.

which we enjoyed with friends,

in true fatty fashion.

 happy thanksgiving y'all.

ps. to prove my super fattiness --

i bought too much pumpkin, 

so i had to make 2 pumpkin pies. 

delicious.

a dream realized.

 

choapan 10

neon happiness

hola méxico. mucho gusto.

i now live in mexico city,

the fifth largest city in the world,

with a population of 21 million.

(kind of makes nyc seem like small potatoes.)

i live in a cute little neighborhood called condesa.

and condesa is a nice residential neighborhood

with lots of parks and great restaurants.

and it is gorgeous.

parque méxico.

there are tons of beautiful houses.

in crazy awesome colors. 

with spectacular iron work.

and fabulous numbers.

(avenida amsterdam used to be a horse racing track,

now it is my running loop.)

my oxxo.

(aka. my mexican 711)

patriotismo: 

my metro bus stop.

delegación cuauhtemoc.

rcg tried to explain to me the difference between 

a colonia (hipodromo-condesa)

and a delegación (cuauhtemoc),

but i'm not sure i got it. 

the delegación is the smaller governmental part of the gigantic mess that is mexico city's government.

and each delegación is broken up into colonias.

(i'm still unclear on what a colonia's function is.)

westhill institute

the main reason for the big (insane) move: i got a job.

i am teaching at an american school in mexico city --

7th grade world geography and 8th grade early world history. 

westhill institute is a huge complex 

with many different schools on its santa fe campus. 

there is an elementary school,

a secondary school, 

(where i work)

and a medical school.

look at how imposing that building is. 

scary pants. 

 

(and i thought bushwick campus was terrifying.)

this is the secondary school.

it houses grades 6 through 12.

and has less than 300 students.

and all of those kids are rich.

not kind of rich,

but rich rich.

example:

every year they auction off the seniors to raise money for prom.

i got to watch this year's auction

and one girl went for 6000 pesos. 

that is approximately $440.

um, what?

that is more than public school teachers in mexico make in a month.

insane. 

plus, 

every single thing the kids wear in school has westhill somewhere on it --

whether it is a WI on the pocket of their khakis,

or westhill institute on their lab coats.

(yeah, they have their own, personal, monogrammed lab coats.)

but the classrooms are nice

and while my schedule is kind of crazy,

(i teach each class 4 times a week at different times each day. wtf?)

it isn't that bad.

 

maybe this won't be a huge disaster?