Votes, pesos and cacti

One of the great things about Mexico (among many) is the variety of fruits and vegetables. It´s guayaba season right now and Wednesday I got a kilo of the small, green bittersweet fruits for about 5 pesos. It´s also nopal (cactus), carrot, apple, avocado, orange (as always), tangerine and onion season, among others. Unfortunately, when you eat imported fruits and veggies in Minnesota, most of the time they taste bland, with little texture and crispness. Apart from that, they´re probably genetically modified. When I was a freshman, I was in the cafeteria with a buddy from Kenya and he was complaining that the skin on the orange he was eating was about an inch thick. "It´s probably genetically modified," he said.

Speaking of modified -- holy crap, the peso hit 14.30 to the dollar on Wednesday!!! The global markets taking a hit from the US´ sinking economy. Just last month, the peso was at a multi-year high against the dollar -- 9.50. at this moment its´13.05 to the dollar. To give an idea -- I pay 2,500 pesos per month for rent. I paid the equivalent of $263 greenies last month, as opposed to $175 this past Wednesday, when my rent was due. Of course, I get paid in pesos, so it doesn´t matter as long as the rent is the same. I suppose a lower value of peso is good for gringos converting dollars into pesos. But I doubt it will be for long, as inflation will probably catch up and the price of everything will rise.

Anyway, I got my ballot E-MAILED to me the other day. How cool is that? You don´t even have to leave home to vote, at least in Minnesota. Each state is different, but you can register and request an absentee ballot with little reason other than "I will be away on election day" and voilá, print, vote and mail (postage paid). I think Minnesota is one of only four states that pays your postage.

Motherly advice

I'm at my sister's house in Kenosha. Kids grow fast. My sister's sorting through clothes, Collin's clothes, 2.5 years old. Collin's small for his age but she already has a few considerable piles from two large rubber bins. Some of the stuff will fit his brother, Logan (aka LJ), and some stuff will fit him in a few months. Unfolding each piece, looking at its size, examining it, "waist size is everything," she says. I'm not paying attention, poking around on the computer, and not sure what prompts it, as she turns to me and says,

"Some advice:

A happy wife is a happy life."

She tells me to be attentive and responsive to the ladies, because "most of them are keeping track, most of them are taking notes."

Adding, she says

"Romance starts in the kitchen."

"...just remember that lil tidbit there."

Very good advice. She's be giving it to me the past two days. Kristie has always been mature beyond her years. I'm going to be very wise by tomorrow.

Today is Tuesday

My life in bullet points.

• At work, about to end my lunch break (2 hours is the norm in Mexico)
• Ate a semi-digestible hot dog ("Vikingo") from a convenience store, mango juice, cold latte -- 26 pesos. For breakfast, sincronizadas (think quesadillas) from my dealer (man who pushes a food cart around the building), 15 pesos.
• The city is semi-smoggy -- ie, you can see the mountains and Santa Fe, but barely. For reference, I work on the 20th floor of the Mural Tower, and you can see most of the city. On a bad day (ie, most of the time), you can´t see the mountains, which lie about 5 miles south, Santa Fe, 7 miles east.
• Reading "Brave New World", in Spanish
• Working on two projects: updating AML´s website (www.aml.com.mx) and putting together a curriculum for teaching English.
  
• I have this rubber thingy, not sure what it´s called, kind of resembles a thimble, but you put it over your finger and you can page through documents easily. It smells horrible, but I can´t stop sniffing it.
• Just for kicks, I bid fake money on Joe Biden as getting selected as Obama´s VP on Intrade. If it were real money, I´d be rich...that´s how much I bid.

Obama in Mexico

One of the most common questions people ask me, after they find out I´m gringo, is: "What do you think of Obama?"

I always tell them I hope he wins, but it´s such a close race that it´s too hard to predict (and if he loses, I´m moving to Canada -- or staying in Mexico).

Then I return the question, asking, "what do you think"?

The response depends on who I´m talking to: unless it´s a young person, they usually say they have no opinion (in general, Mexicans tend to err on the cautious side when talking about politics, especially if it´s with foreigners). But if it´s someone under 30, undoubtedly they will say Obama.

Curiously, Mexicans showed little interest in the US presidential race. According to a Pew Global Attitudes survey conducted in June, Mexico is the country with the fourth-lowest interest in the race (of the 23 nations polled). 30 percent of Mexicans have a favorable image of Obama (compared to 19 percent of McCain). There´s something to be said, however, about the timing of that poll: it´s two months old, the race has certainly heated up since then, and McCain made a brief stop to Mexico last month, in what was a widely publicized event, and to some, a misguided and awkward excuse to garner Latino votes in the US. What´s more, McCain is Protestant, and received blessings in the Basilica (Mexico´s equivalent of the Mecca), in an overwhelmingly Catholic country and one in which (unlike the US) politicians avoid mixing religion with their campaigns. Misguided, indeed.























Elsewhere

The U.S. presidential race is captivating far more than Americans´attention: it´s safe to say that in nearly every country, particularly in Western Europe, foreigners favor Obama by as much as 53 percent over John McCain (72%:19% in Spain; 84%:33% in France), and in some countries (notably, Japan, at 83 percent, and Germany, about 82 percent), the election is being followed heavily or somewhat (in the US, it´s at 80 percent). Not surprisingly, McCain maintains his highest ratings in the US (60 percent have favorable views of McCain, 59 percent for Barry), while every other country polled by Pew (except Jordan) favors Obama.

Taxisismo

One of my least favorite groups of people in Mexico City is taxistas, or taxi drivers. Most, but not all, tend to be nacos, Mexican for someone with a limited level of education and culture; bad taste and bad manners; which would be equivalent to redneck or white trash in the U.S. Taxistas generally have a bad reputation for their reckless driving, muggings, assaulting, robbery and sexual harassment. They tend to reek and listen to bad music. Whenever I am about to enter a taxi, I always ask myself: "Am I going to die in this car?" If the answer is no, then I´ll get in. If my chances are high, then I´ll back away slowly and then run off.

In general, there are two types of taxis in Mexico City: legitimate and pirated. You can almost always tell the difference by their license plates. Legit taxis carry government-issued taxi plates, differentiated by a red or green bar at the bottom of the plate. Pirated taxis, on the other hand, use normal plates like other cars, but usually the loud exhaust, squealing tires and numerous dents give them away.

One downside to legitimate taxis, however, is that they are often as bad as pirated taxis. For example, I took a legit taxi the other day in the downtown, and the tires were noticeably loose. The taxi driver seemingly had little control over his car, and whenever we´d make a turn he´d fight with the steering wheel to make sure we didn´t veer off into oncoming traffic. I noticed, too, that he had a long, thin, discrete mirror attached to the sun visor, directly in view of the passenger´s crotch. Watch out, ladies.

All of this negative talk makes taxistas sound like the most horrible people around. Although they are close, taxi drivers have a few redeeming factors: they tend to have impressive knowledge of the city, they have the ability to weave and curve around traffic, they´re better than using mass transit on crowded days, and they´re cheap. Flag drop costs about sixty cents, and most taxi rides cost between $2 and $6. I´ve had good conversations with some taxistas, but most of the time they´re silent -- the majority barely talks to you.

One uncommon sight is to see a female taxista. I´ve only seen a few, and last wek was my first experience with one. It was a massively obese grandma driving a scummy little Beetle (many people still drive the old Beetles in Mexico, and lime-green Beetle taxis in Mexicoare ubiquitous) with no power steering. Interesting sight...

Beetle taxis (or Vochos) are as ubiquitous as ambulantes, a topic for another day :)