Am I really a blogger? REALLY?!?

Well, here we are: just moved to Mexico City, largest city in the world. We'll be here for two years; so I've got two weeks down, 102 weeks to go :) Iti kept telling me "you should write a blog" so what the heck, let's see how long my attention span will keep up with this one.

Let's see, some general impressions from the city: the chaos is absolutely thrilling. And I'm not kidding one bit. Driving in Mexico is an exercise in aggression. Whoever doesn't give a !#@$ the most (least?) wins. Some maneuvers you'll see regularly in the city: turning right from the left-most lane, preferably turning right in front of one or more cars going straight as fast as they can. Always exhilarating to witness, even more fun if you're in one of the cars involved in the imminent collision. It's amazing that I've witnessed zero car accidents to date, since in two weeks I've seen 314,877 near misses (being somehow involved as driver/passenger/pedestrian for 314,876 of them). I would have seen more near accidents, but I've learned the most enjoyable way to ride in a car is with your eyes closed.

Or completely drunk out of your mind.

The enterprising nature of the chilango (slang for a Mexico City native/dweller) never ceases to amaze. Just down the street from Iti's parents' apartment is a car wash. And I don't mean "an actual building or traditional place of business where someone has made an investment in real estate and equipment to wash automobiles in return for payment". I mean during the day there are a bunch of dudes hanging out on a normal street block, and they'll wash your car on the side of the street.

It's amazing the semi-permanence of these totally illegal operations (well, illegal a). in the US or b) in Mexico if anyone gave a crap). Along the block, on both sides, they have like a hundred old 50 gallon metal drums, filled with water (probably rain water), and some type of soap-like substance in a few. A bunch of dudes run around in coveralls and big rubber boots, and you can parallel park your car and get it "washed" for a few cents. I say "washed" because, really, how clean will your car be after being washed with rainwater from a rusty old oil drum? Exactly.

For convenience, there's also a mechanic next door: just down from the car wash two dudes hang out with a small tool box and fix cars on the side of the road. They usually have 2-3 cars they're working on, and seem to spend most of their time trying not to get hit by moving vehicles as they're laying under the cars they're fixing... all on the side of the road. It's totally amazing, you have to see this for yourself sometime.

Another great example is parking. People hang out in the street and decide they own certain city blocks. The parking is totally free from the city, but these enterprising souls decided that you should give them money for the privilege of parking for free. You pull up, they "help" you to park (waving their arms and screaming in an unnecessary fashion), and then "watch" your car for you while you're gone (meaning they won't personally vandalize your car or steal it). (Probably). They only charge about 50 cents US for as long as you want to leave your car there, but seriously people, IT'S THE $#(%!#@&*^@! STREET!!! I can't wait to see my first parking meter. I'll bet there's a bum who sticks you with a surcharge for using the meter. It's his street, after all.

Tonight and tomorrow should be totally sweet. It's Mexico's Independence Day; Sept. 16 for all you stupid gringos who think anyone outside of the US actually celebrates Cinco de Mayo (they don't). Anyway, they don't mess around down here. We were sitting around the house yesterday watching TV, and I swear it sounded like a car exploding in the apartment across the hall, or maybe a cannon being shot off. A big-ass howitzer, not some wimpy small-bore cannon, but real field artillery, strike-the-fear-of-God-in-their-hearts stuff.

This wasn't someone shooting the next Die Hard film in our living room, but rather someone playing with what they like to call "fireworks" down here. I like to call it three pounds of C4. And this was like many MANY blocks away. Can't wait until everybody and their unsupervised four year old kid start shooting these off en masse tonight and tomorrow. Good times!

Don't get me wrong; I'm having a total blast so far. It's refreshing living in an actual city for a change (unlike say Raleigh). The food has been awesome, and if it weren't for battling some nasty bronchitis we would have been paralyzed with too many choices of awesome things to do over the weekend. Next week should be great: Friday we leave for our first road trip! Can't wait. Until then...

A Chicago Gringo in Mexico