pelando el cable.

Hey again!

This post is more or less going to be one big mish-mash of everything.

Let’s start with this quote from a Brazilian literature professor Fernando Teixeira de Andrade (although the common belief is that it comes from Pessoa) I stumbled upon a couple of days ago:

Há um tempo que é preciso abandonar as roupas usadas, que já tem a forma do nosso corpo, e esquecer os nossos caminos, que nos levam sempre aos mesmos lugares. É o tempo da travessia; e se não ousarmos fazê-la, teremos ficado, para sempre, à margem de nós mesmos.

More or less, a loose translation to English (or at least something I think is English) would be: There comes a time when it is necessary to let go of our worn-out clothes and forget those paths that always take us to the same places. That is the time when a journey begins; and shall we not dare set out on it, we will remain, for eternity, apart from ourselves.

It illustrates nicely how and why I ended up here I guess. A friend mentioned earlier today that my blog reminded her of Eat, pray, love (the book, I would be suicidal if it reminded her of the movie), so it left me thinking -the book is actually not that bad, once you turn a blind eye on the publicity tricks (70%), the somewhat dull American humor (20%), which leaves us with 10% of pretty good stuff. In one moment, the author quotes an ancient Indian Yogic text (Bhagavad Gita), saying that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection. Guess we should do that, if we ever ask ourselves what’s our destiny.

Before this turns into a page with tips on mental health (that’s not it’s original purpose) -back to Mexico! Many of you asked me what the LGBT situation here was. Well, let’s take few examples. Same-sex marriage has been legal since 2009, making Mexico the first Latin American country to do so (which left Argentina miserable, they wanted to be the first). Fun fact: sitting in a park a couple of days ago, I saw more openly gay couples (holding hands, kissing) in three hours than I did in Berlin, after a year there, am not exaggerating. And it’s the reality of this city, going on in the subway, on a market, in a bar, wherever. Which leads me to another point –showing affection, this is one of the biggest differences when it comes down to comparing with Europe, and by that I mean both Western and Eastern (by saying this I’m talking from my personal experience -the only experience we can actually talk from, feel free to comment). Sometimes it can get overwhelming, seeing people shouting, kissing, hugging, yelling… on every corner. But, it might be a healthier approach –simply releasing your emotions, which is not a tendency in Europe. A random story: the last time I was in Mexico City, I met a girl from Dresden, who’d been living and working here for the Goethe Institut for a couple of years. When I asked her if she’d been planning on going back to Germany, her answer was an instant no. Funny thing: when visiting Dresden one winter, she met a high-school friend she hadn’t seen for some time. After a short update (that she was living in Mexico) her friend looked at her and said: You’re weird. You’re smiling all the time. I find myself doing the same (at the time being, will update you dear people on this as time goes by).

On a recent survey, 9 out of 10 happiest countries (according to the degree of satisfaction) were from Latin America. The non-Latin American one was Denmark (hvis der er nogen dansker, der læser det her, jeg kan bare gratulere jer!). Serbia and the rest of Eastern Europe were at the end of the list, in case anyone wondered.

Anyhow, thanks for reading all this jumping from one topic to another; one dear person would say that I am pelando el cable (peeling the [electric] cable=going cuckoo).

After a pretty hectic landing, the coincidences I mentioned in the previous post and traveling around, it was about time to do some logistic part, finding a place to live and a job (the latter is still in progress).

Got a room, downtown Mexico City (know as the Centro Histórico). These last few days were all about making it habitable (after dropping the idea of finding IKEA, the closest one is in San Diego). This is how it looks like: 

 The morning.

View from the balcony.

My bedroom window.

Downtown -sunrise from the roof top.

and once again ;)

the staircase.

kitchen colors.

random kitchen details.

a detail from an abandoned building on the other side of the street (it's wonderful -there's a bunch crickets living there, so at night it feels as if you were in the middle of the countryside).

living room

sunset.

the Cathedral (now with sunset, not with sunrise)

and more sunset.

Somehow, after re-reading the post, I must say that, obviously, this is my vision of Mexico and thus, it might be different than or quite the opposite of someone else’s. Most of my friends here belong to the middle class, are between 20 and 30 years old people, with education and more or less of a settled life (economically speaking). And yes, it is easier for me to live the Alice-in-Wonderland experiences when life costs are considerably lower than in e.g. Germany (my previous stop) and when Mr € can stretch. But, this country has as many realities as inhabitants. The writing here would be my reality.

Love you all,

Danilo xx