Expat Interviewed

I've just been interviewed by the website Expat Interviews on my experiences of life in Mexico. They asked me quite a lot of questions about what it was like to come here and how I've dealt with the culture, so it's pretty comprehensive. I've also sent them some photos of Mexico, so it looks quite good too.

There are also loads of interviews with other expats all over the world, and their stories make for interesting reading. It seems weird to think of myself as an expat, but I did feel something in common with all those other people.

Home town controversy

Scanning through the headlines on the Guardian website, I found this story, which scared me a little. I used to live around the corner from that school and I think it all boils down to the fact that girls aren't allowed to wear jewellery there. To go to court claiming religious intolerance is just mad. Lydia Playfoot should be a character in Harry Potter...

...speaking of which, I saw the new Harry Potter film on Saturday. The women liked it, the men were apathetic. It wasn't that bad, though (says he in apathetic mode).

I've also just finished another translation, which came in at somewhere over twelve thousand words, so not bad for a week's work. Although I paid the price by being utterly unbearable on Sunday.

Teaching and books

I've been rather busy recently, sending a stack of emails for my "virtual study group" and trying to organise the more able ones into a Google Group so they can practise more. Who knows if they'll actually use it?

The novel's coming along, slowly. I'm somewhere in the middle of Chapter Five, which means I've written about 85 pages by hand. I have my doubts as to the plot, but I decided from the beginning that I wasn't going to look back, so anything broken has to be fixed as I go along. When I get around to editing it, I'll have plenty of chances to rearrange stuff.

Now, time for a very, very late lunch!

Translations and photos

I see that one of my translations is now online. It's always weird to look back at translating work again - I end up feeling there are things I could have done better, and some I don't remember writing at all. Still, it's nice to see it published.

Here's a photo of the Zócalo in the city centre, which I snapped on my mobile the other day. No reason, just felt like taking a picture of something so magnificent as I passed on my way back home.

Writing and Time Lords

I'm up to page 63 in the novel I'm writing, which also feels like the age I'll be when it's finished.

According to this site, my Timelord name is Mosdrashytonytanmorenoldacheengoldilden, although some Spanish friends of mine think that it repeats its choices too often, and they all seem to get called Tony.

Water Squandered in Parque de los Venados

My girlfriend and I were walking past Parque de los Venados yesterday, and saw the park being flooded to water the plants. However, there was no-one in sight to turn off the hosepipes. Since there appear to be stories in the news all the time about the scarcity of water in Mexico City, why are the parks wasting so much water?

Christmas Preparations

Everything’s almost ready for Christmas Eve, the time most Mexican families celebrate Christmas. I’ve prepared a Red Pepper Soup, which tastes fantastic, and we’ve almost wrapped all the presents. I’m also completely exhausted, since we went for a few Christmas drinks with some friends last night and didn’t get home until the wee hours.

Still, it only happens once a year, so I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a speedy recovery. May your celebrations be happy ones!

How (not) to Organise a Party in Mexico

A few weeks ago, my girlfriend and I were chatting with some friends after a particularly good concert, and I suggested throwing a Christmas party for all our friends. ‘Oh no!’ she said. ‘You're going to lumber me with all the organising!’ I told her not to worry, and that it would be easy.

Well, I didn't do anything for the first couple of weeks, but eventually got around to sending an invitation to a load of people in my e-mail contacts. Nothing happened. Then I got a reply from someone cancelling. Meanwhile, my girlfriend, accustomed to my inefficiency, had already begun talking it up with her friends at work.

As I was leaving for work one morning, I noticed that someone had put up a notice about our building’s Christmas party, along with a list of things to bring. It was the same evening as ours; so much for us being neighbourly this year. A couple of days later, I called the office and found out that the school Christmas breakfast was going to be the day after the party; another year without seeing my colleagues.

Yesterday, I asked a friend who was coming to the party what music he’d like to hear at the party. ‘Don't worry,’ he said. ‘Just make sure there’s a hook-up for my iPod.’ I had to tell him that the idea of a party is talk to people, not end up hunched over the stereo. Maybe I’ll give them half an hour for an iPod contest, but I invite my friends to talk to them, not peer at their music collections over their shoulders.

So, we’re nearly there, and it seems that plenty of people (invited mainly by my girlfriend) are going to show up. I just have to figure out how to make the punch and burn a CD of MP3s. I was right; it wasn’t that hard at all.

Hobbits on the Metro

A strange thing happened to me a few weeks ago. As I was crossing Metro Hidalgo to catch my train, a tiny man running for his train crashed into me. He was wearing a dark red jumper, the kind of thing a hobbit might wear.

The strange thing, however, was his reaction to crashing into a complete stranger. Instead of attempting to avoid collision, he merely threw his arms around his face. He hadn’t been running terribly fast, so once he’d got over the business of crashing into me, he dodged around and was off into the crowd. He hadn’t said a single word.

I stood there for a moment, slightly shocked, and then carried on with my journey. I wondered where he was going and why he was in such a hurry. A lot of companies here close their doors to workers arriving late, so perhaps he was desperate not to lose a day’s pay. Under these circumstances, waiting for the next train or bus is not an option.

However, it did strike me as though this had happened to him before. His casual reaction to my pedestrian blip on his work rush radar seemed to show that he almost accepted it. There’s a lot to accept here: crowded trains, long waits for the driver to pull out of the station and heavy braking which regularly spills passengers all over each other. Maybe he thought I was just another of these everyday obstacles on his way to work.

You have to put up with a lot in order to get from A to B and it seems natural after a while. Whether running the red light or dodging traffic, you get used to it. Perhaps we’re all just hobbits on the Metro, flinging our arms in front of our faces at the first sign of danger. There we are, racing across the concourse in our little hobbit jumpers, arms out front, pulling the wool over our own eyes.