Museo de Antropologia

We spent a lovely morning on Sunday enjoying Xalapa's anthropology museum. This was one of my favourite pieces - a giant Olmec head. The first Olmec site was around 1200 BC!

After the museum, we enjoyed a local market and sampled some street food (of course). We were in awe at the produce on sale. We'd eat well if we lived here (i.e. had a kitchen).

More photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jomynard/MuseoAntropologia?feat=directlink

Colourful sweets from Veracruz

Made of coconut and condensed milk. So sweet, but soooooo good. Thanks Manuel!

Xico - the town time forgot

A typical Xico scene, complete with VW Beetle

More photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jomynard/Xico?feat=directlink

You are going to love the one of the games arcade.... and the man on a horse. These places really exist.

Work stuff (2)

Photo of "USBI" where we are working.

Today I went into the university and worked on my own stuff mainly. I chatted to one of the staff members about his MA dissertation proposal and I offered to look over it for him. I also took part in a conversation class to help out one of the learning advisors. It was a one on one class with a really nice girl called Ivett who works at the university. She spends Tuesdays doing self-directed English study at the self-access centre. We chatted for ages, exchanged e-mail addresses and phone numbers and will arrange to meet up again.

I chatted to Sergio about his research and about an e-mail list that we both belong to. It’s so nice to be able to do this face to face!

Veracruz City

Monday was a holiday, so we took a bus 2 hours away to Veracruz to explore the party city. Fun day. Pity we missed carnival there.

More pictures on Picassa here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jomynard/Veracruz?feat=directlink

Waterfalls

Paradise in Veracruz

Waterfalls

One the way back we stopped seemingly in the middle of nowhere and followed Luis on another little adventure. We ended up at some waterfalls. We walked along the waterfalls to a grassy area and natural pool the other side. It was like paradise! I’d love to spend an afternoon there some time. I think we can get the bus there from Xalapa.

Spread

We re-traced our steps back to the village where the ladies of the family had prepared a feast! An absolute table full of tasty treats: adobo spicy chicken, beans, tamales, tacos and chayotes. We talked about recipes as we sat around the family dining table. What a lovely experience! We arranged to meet again in 3 weeks time and do a hike to another village with Don Jesús. We’ll have to think of something nice to bring to the kind family. It’s difficult when you don’t have a kitchen.

Hike

Yes, Mexicans really do wear these hats. They also say arriba, andale.

The team

Don Jesus uses his machete

Don Jesus, Luis and David

Don Jesús

Me with Don Jesús and Lewis

We took a taxi to Luis & Rosalia’s house at 9am sharp and left for the country. We picked up another couple Roberto and Ophelia along the way. And off we went in Luis’ people carrier for about an hour and a half until we got to a dusty village called Villa Nueva. We asked a random stranger in a cowboy hat where we could find Don Jesús. “down there” he said smiling. Everyone smiles and waves in Villa Nueva. It must have 100 inhabitants at most and Don Jesús seems to be the head of the village with a nice, yet simple house down a lane under some tamarind trees. Chickens clucked around outside and the family came out to greet us. Don Jesús was a smiley, wiry man of about 55 and seemed very pleased to see us. Luis introduced us all. Rosalia brought in some tamales she had made that we could share later. We Don Jesús’ wife (I can’t remember her name (but we called her “Doña” out of respect), some of his grown sons and daughters and assorted grandchildren. Doña was sitting in their yard preparing vegetables that looked like peppers, but turned out to be called Chayotes. We later saw them growing everywhere and later still, sampled cooked ones. Very tasty - bit like potatoes so they were a hit with the Irishman. We didn’t stay long and Don Jesús was ready to escort us on a hike up the hill to see how the crops were irrigated. We all put on hats and tightened our hiking boots and off we went through the village. We waved and smiled at everyone. We passed lads (“Chavos”) going off to ply football and families sitting outside in the heat playing fiesta music. Not for the first time on this trip I felt like I was in a cartoon. We also saw boxes of chayotes boxed up ready to send to the United States and Canada.

We spent a few hours hiking. Don Jesús pointed out local landmarks, plants and crops and Luis talked and asked questions. We followed, just enjoying the day and feeling really lucky that we were seeing the “real” Mexico. I loved looking down on the valley at the ‘forest” of mango trees in bloom and at tiny villages with impressive churches. It was so beautiful. We didn’t speak or hear any English the entire day.

We came to a spot where a village used to be. They now call it the “hidden village” and there is nothing left. The lads went off to see what they could find of the old village while I stayed with the ladies and found out about useful things like how to make tamales and where to go to find a village that made shoes (I have to go there!). When they guys came back, we had to check them for ticks. Ticks gross me out. It’s the burrowing into skin that I can’t handle. I picked a few off David. Yuck. Don Jesús seemed to think that they weren’t dangerous, just a bit unpleasant. Nevertheless, we should check carefully when we got home

Sunrise over Pico Orizaba

Taken from our window on our first morning

Juarez Park life

Juarez Park

Saturday was a beautiful day and we spent it exploring Xalapa. Firstly, we went to Juarez Park. It’s the kind of park that when you sit there, stuff happens to you. Firstly, we sat admiring the views of the lovely mountains. We were soon visited by a roving musician. They seem to be an everyday part of Mexican life. If you are a couple in a park or restaurant, they’ll serenade you. He was sweet and had a lovely voice so we let him carry on (and gave him a nice tip). What a nice way to start the day. The museums opened at 10, so we visited the art museum and the city museum. We then went back to the park which was by now getting quite busy. We sat on a bench in the sun and I sketched and David read. Why isn’t life always like this? I think Mexico is good for me. Back in Japan on a Saturday morning, I am slaving over my laptop. We had a few visitors from people selling sweets, balloons or handing out leaflets. A couple of girls did aerobics to loud music on the stage – they were advertising an event next weekend. A lady in a white coat with a stethoscope around her neck approached

“Doc”: “ what a nice young couple and so obviously in love! I’m a doctor from XXXX hospital - do you know what your blood pressure is?

David: “I’ve just had mine measured, thanks. I take medication for it as it’s a little high.

“Doc” Ah! Xalapa life will lower your blood pressure! It’s the lifestyle. Let me check it again to be sure.

David: “no thanks”

“Doc”: “What about you senorita?” (Ha! Love it! Still a senorita at the age of 40!)

Me: “no thanks, mine’s normal – I had it checked recently too”

“Doc”: “well, what about a second opinion”

Me: “no, gracias”

Doc: “well what about making a donation to the hospital?” (Ah, so this is what it’s all about!)

Me: “Can you give me the name and the address of the hospital and I will make a donation there

Doc: You can just give the money to me

David: That’s OK. Thank you. Bye.

Nice try. I’m sure the hospital doesn’t collect money that way….

views

Photo taken on the roof of the university

Luis

Sergio offered to introduce us to a friend of his called Luis today. Luis has travelled the world and was now back in Xalapa and retired and likes to meet foreigners. Sergio knows we like hiking and Luis organizes weekend excursions with local guides every weekend. We were keen to meet him.

Sergio said it was fine just to drop in on him so we headed down the back streets of Xalapa in search of his house. His street was blocked with a bollard, but Sergio thought it would be OK to move the bollard and go on through. David did the honours (I should have taken a picture) and down we went. His “house” turned out to be a hostel. We aren’t quite sure what the story was, but the surly youth at reception said he didn’t live there anymore so off we went to the other side of town to his new house. I was expecting another hostel, so was taken aback at the big house in an upper class neighbourhood. Luis and his wife Rosalia welcomed us in and we chatted about the upcoming day trips.

Luis has the demeanor of a man who is used to being listened to. We listened. Atentamente. Luis described the excursions as mini adventures and that you never quite know where you will end up or what will happen. He likes to go with local guides for a number of reasons. He counted them off on his fingers. Firstly, they know the best routes. Secondly, your car will be safe outside their houses. Thirdly, you can usually have a meal with them afterwards. Fourthly, you have access to water and bathrooms. Finally (which did make me feel a little alarmed), if you inadvertently stumble upon anything related to the drug trade, no one will bother you because you will be with one of the locals. That’s good then. he emphasised that the trips were "muy muy rustico". That's OK, we can do rustico.

There were excursions planned for Saturday and Sunday and we said we would join Sunday’s trip where the rough plan was to learn about how the locals of a small town irrigate their land.

A place to live

(view from our window)

We followed a couple more apartment leads and ended up at a 4 star hotel that someone had recommended to us as they heard that they also let out mini apartments long term. The place was nice and we were sure that it would be beyond our budget, but it was worth asking. The price for the entire month was excellent so we asked to see the room. It was in a modern apartment building on a quiet street right in the centre of the city. It’s basically one large room with a massive bed, huge windows,a wardrobe (with a safe inside), table and 2 chairs, sideboard, bedside cabinets and a really nice bathroom. It gets cleaned everyday, just like a hotel. It doesn’t have a kitchen, but it does have a coffee machine. With comida corridas on offer, who needs to cook anyway? I also found real Bran Flakes in shops here, so breakfast is sorted. No need for my brother and sister-in-law to send me food parcels here! Oh! Best thing – it has wireless internet. Yes, of course we took it and moved in the next morning before work. We opened the curtains and saw that we have a view of Pico Orizaba (the volcano) and the Cofre mountain range through the window. Can it get any better?

Comida Corrida

We said goodbye to Sergio and went to have lunch at a place doing a “menu del dia” (or Comida Corrida as they call it here). We needed to go to the bank and only had 100 pesos on us, so when we passed a place advertising a 3 course lunch, we assumed we couldn’t afford it. Soup, tortillas, tortilla chips and spicy dips, a main course, rice pudding for dessert and a jug of “water” (more like homemade lemonade). I asked the waitress how much the set lunch was. 30 pesos. 30 pesitos! What a bargain. It turns out that this is around the standard price for a lunch like this so we now have our main meal at lunchtime.

Finding a place to stay

We finished work at 2pm and got a lift from Sergio to a place where we’d heard that they were renting out little furnished apartments, but unfortunately, they had all gone. There was a notice on the wall for another apartment to let so we wrote it down. Sergio had found out about a hostal which rented rooms for the month for rock bottom prices so we went to have a look. Sergio described it kindly as “sencillo”(simple), his daughter Laura had been a bit more blunt and called it “feo” (ugly). It looked like a cell, but it was VERY cheap. An option I was willing to consider until David talked some sense into me – we are supposed to be on holiday too and we could afford something a bit better. We had a couple of leads and a couple of numbers and hoped to find somewhere to live today. If the worst came to the worst, we could always say in La Posada Mariquinta one more night. It’s kind of damp and very cold, so I’ll actually be glad when we can move out.

Work stuff (1)

We attended a couple of orientation sessions for students. One was the initial orientation for new students where they learn about the concept of self-directed learning and find their way around the SAC. This is done with a quick introduction given by one of the learning advisors (asesores) and by exploring a website with links to various bits of information. The information and the orientation is all done in Spanish. In fact, everything apart from the actual materials are in Spanish. The students did seem very keen I must say. We got mistaken for asesores a couple of times and I had to get help from someone else. I wanted to say (in Spanish) “I’m a visitor”, but wanted to check whether this would sound OK. I didn’t want to make it sound like I was saying I was an Alien….

I liked the idea of using the computer as an alternative way of delivering the orientation information. The students can choose what they read and how much time they spend on each point. I wondered whether there was a way of checking whether the students had understood (or even read) everything though. One of the activities was an interactive learning styles quiz. I completed the quiz for my Spanish study and really enjoyed it. However, now I can’t remember what style I was identified as having! Perhaps a combination of computer-based activities and written tasks could be another way to go?

Some students choose to take a self-directed course for credit instead of a class which means that they keep a portfolio of work and meet with any of the learning advisors. Their progress is tracked electronically (although I’m not clear how). This is not unlike the “learning how to learn” and “Sophomore” modules that we run at Kanda, but they don’t submit a reflective diary to an assigned learning advisor like our students do. They do write short reflections (in Spanish) though.

The second session we attended was in a classroom and was given by the learning advisor who deals with students learning French. The aim of this session was to help students to get started on their self-directed French study. They set some goals, decided how much time to assign each week and signed a contract. The Asesor explained how to find the materials and what kinds of comments to write in the log. They seemed really engaged and keen to get going. Most students decided to dedicate 6 hours a week to self-directed study.

We spend a lot more time on needs analysis, goal setting and materials selection at Kanda. I have brought some of our activities along in case they might be useful here. Perhaps the students are more independent than ours though. I’ll get a better idea after I have been here for a while.

I had a copy of the learning contract and initial log and I am tempted to fill it in for my Spanish study. I am experiencing almost total immersion, i.e. lots of “U” in our SURE+E model, but not much of the other aspects. My goals are (1) to be able to talk about my field effectively in Spanish and (2) sort out my verb endings when I speak – they are a mess.

We chatted to one of the learning advisors about her thesis. She is doing something very similar to Diego! She used 2 instruments to look into students’ beliefs the Horwitz one and Sara Cotteral’s one. David is going to look at it first and help her with overall structure. I’ll help out later when she ties in autonomy. I must put her in touch with Diego later.

Universidad Veracruzana

After breakfast with Sergio at Paroquia (a local institution), we drove to the university. It’s not far, but the campus is enormous and there are several sites. The route to the library building is lined with lovely trees and flowers and the building itself is even more impressive that I thought it would be from the photos.

We made our way to the Centre de Auto Acceso where Sergio works and where we will be based for the month. It was busy! Lots of new students were having their orientations. We met the 20 or so people who worked in the centre and they made us feel very welcome. We then sat with the 2 bosses for half an hour or so to discuss our role. They are happy for us to come and go as we please and base ourselves in the centre getting on with our own work. We told them that we are interested in learning more about what they do and helping in anyway that we can. Currently we are helping some of the learning advisors with their master’s theses. I am also helping another staff member with TOEFL preparation in order to be accepted on a master’s course in the UK. We hope to chat to students, join conversation groups possibly do some research (David) and share some practical ideas related to self-access/learner autonomy (me).

Foodie update 17/2/10

We had baked trout in delicious spicy sauces today. On the side were hot, soft corn-based tortillas. There were also free crunchy tortilla chips, dried chili paste and avocado dip (plus the usual obligatory bowl of limes). This was washed down with a bottle of Sol laced with salt and lime. I am going to stop going on about how delicious the food is. If it makes this blog, you should assume that what we ate was “ricísimo” (lush).

Weather

Just in case you all think we are basking in sunshine, sipping Piña Coladas by the sea, I’d better come clean and let you know that I am freezing. There is a cold front over Veracruz, and Xalapa is quite high in altitude so it is normally cooler here anyway. It’s also lashing down with rain. It’s supposed to warm up by Friday which will be a relief because we packed all the wrong clothes. There is also no heating in our hotel room because it is unusually cold, which means I’m even colder than I was in Japan and I don’t have a bath in which to warm up.

Coatapec

We picked up Lolis, Sergio’s wife, from their house and the five of us drove to a town called Coatapec. We had heard of this place and it was on our list of places we wanted to visit, but I didn’t realize that we’d be going so soon. On the way there, we saw these funny little plants nestled in the trees. They were coffee plants. Coatapec is famous for coffee plantations – apparently the best in Mexico. What a treat! We sampled the coffee after lunch at a lovely reconstructed old house. There are loads of lovely cafes in the town and we’ll be definitely going back.

Arrival in Xalapa

Our friend Sergio met us at Xalapa bus station and gave us a bit of a tour of the town in the car. I think this will make an excellent base. We wanted to see and live in a real Mexican town and Xalapa is definitely that. It’s a beautiful old town with interesting, multi-coloured buildings, cobbled streets, hills and parks. It’s really gorgeous. The rain does take the edge off, but it will end sooner or later.

I have only ever spoken to Sergio in English before so it was strange at first to speak nothing but Spanish. I suppose we both have slightly different personalities in the different languages? It was a boost though because I had absolutely no trouble understanding anything he said. I am still a bit slow at responding and still grasp for words and analyze tenses, but it will get smoother I know. I love being in a Spanish speaking place again. We picked up Sergio’s daughter Laura from school and then checked into our posada. We chose this place because it’s right in the centre and occupies an old 18^th century building. It’s really lovely – a whitewashed traditional house set around a series of courtyards full of plants. Our room has a tiled floor, red stucco-style walls and a little balcony over looking a courtyard. It’s also pretty cheap.

Long distance bus to Xalapa

Today we took the bus from Mexico City to Xalapa. I didn’t think it would be politically correct to joke about being held up by Mexican bandits, but our guide book (recent edition) does actually mention it as a real risk on 2^nd class busses. Fortunately, our friends told us about the deluxe “Platano” bus with a company called U.D.O. We had fond memories about long distance bus travel in Argentina on luxury buses, and were keen to ride one again in Mexico. These were even better than the Argentine ones (although perhaps they now have the extras, we haven’t been there since 2005). Lots of leg room and a leg rest, so the seat almost turns into a bed (think first class plane travel). There are also individual TV screens and remote controls and a place to plug in your laptop. No wireless like on Swedish busses though. There were loads of moves to choose from and I watched El Ilusionista and El Pianista. Yes, I did look out of the window too. It took hours to get out of D.F. (Distrito Federal), then we passed through mountains and even saw snowy peaks and a couple of volcanoes, then we saw miles of fields and then miles of stereotypical Mexican landscape: cacti. I don’t have any pictures because it was raining and I couldn’t get any good shots. Finally, we reached Xalapa with a grinding halt and then a crawl through heavy traffic. Within a few minutes of being in the town, we could tell that traffic is a problem in Xalapa.

Beautiful ironing job

Haven't seen middle creases in jeans since the Abu Dhabi days. This how they came back courtesy of the hotel laundry service. Stylish.

Diego Rivera

Mural at the Palace

Sergio Junior

This afternoon we met our friend Sergio’s son, Sergio in the lobby. He’s a university student in Mexico City. We spend a nice couple of hours with him which included a trip up the Latino Americano tower for great views of the city.

Templo Mayor

Remains of an Aztec temple right in the centre of Mexico City. We also visited the excellent museum.

Exploring D.F.

We were staying in the Centro Historico so were able to walk to the main square (Zocalo) easily. It’s so impressive! We did a lap of the square and walked past the palace and the cathedral and few streets around. We found a street café doing tacos that smelled delicious. We ordered 2 beers and a taco each. The tacos were SO DELICIOUS that we ordered 3 more. We demolished them and ordered 2 more. My god they were good. I have obviously never had real Mexican food before, it’s incredible. I wondered whether sitting in the street we would get hassled a lot, but we weren’t really. Just a couple of beggars and a guy with a big head of hair & moustache with a guitar doing requests (he even had a list of suggestions).

The next morning we woke up at 5am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Not quite over the jetlag yet then. We couldn’t pick up the wireless from our room so went down to the lobby with our iphones. It was cold and the lights were off (the night porter wouldn’t put them on). Never mind, only 2 hours to wait until breakfast and 4 hours to wait until anything was open.

This morning was reserved for culture and we started with a coffee in a design museum. Then we went to the palace. The murals painted by Diego Rivera were amazing. The one above the main stairs depicted various events in Mexican history. We even spotted a Frida Kahlo lookalike.

Taxi ride in Mexico City

Our taxi driver seemed old school until he whipped out the SatNav. It didn’t take long to get to the hotel. We drove down a very long street containing shoe shops, old fashioned clothes shops and sex shops, side by side. Street vendors worked the traffic queues at the lights selling the usual kinds of things: newspapers, drinks, snacks, lottery tickets, hats….knives….yes, BIG kitchen knives. I wonder if he gets much business. It’s not exactly an impulse purchase as you sit at the lights and I can’t imagine that people would go there especially to buy his knives. Perhaps he uses one of them to threaten people into buying them, who knows.

Juarez

I looked at my boarding pass. It said we were flying to Benito Juarez Airport. For a fleeting second I thought I had made a mistake with the booking and that we were flying to Ciudad Juarez. Juarez is the border town where more than 15,000 murders are believed to have occurred in the past 2 years. Don’t panic. Benito Juarez is also the name of the airport in Mexico City and where we were headed. I have since found out that every town has something named after Juarez as he was quite a hero (I looked him up) - he’s the dude who kicked out the French and was elected president in 1867.

I slept most of the flight and we landed in Mexico City after only 4 ½ hours. The descent was impressive. First we flew over an area of drained lakes. Then the city started – a vast built-up area beginning along a straight line where the lakes ended. There were multi-coloured low-rise boxes for miles and miles and even spilling up the mountains in the distance. We landed among them as the airport is right in the city. I could even see people through their kitchen windows cooking tacos as we landed.

Mexico!

We slept through to the more civilized time of 6.30am today, had a quick breakfast and checked out. We walked through the familiar fog to Embarcadero BART station to get the train to the airport. There were a few stray feathers floating around, but someone had done a decent job of the cleanup after the mass pillow fight the night before.

We decided to upgrade to economy plus for a bit more legroom. Good move! I had my final crap cup of US tea and we headed to the departure lounge. As we were boarding, one of the ground staff ladies asked David:

Lady: How long will you be in Mexico for?
David: Just over a month
Lady: Que bueno! That’s a long time.
David: Yes
Lady: Lucky you. You’ll be married by the time you come back.

Hmmmm….

Battle carnage in San Francisco

We are starting to feel very sleep deprived. This afternoon we took a 2 and a half hour nap which I hope will help us to get over the jetlag. We woke about 7.30 and went for a walk. We got down to Maritime Plaza in front of the Ferry Building and were shocked by the carnage and battle in full flow. The Valentine’s Day massacre…. with pillows! The whole square was filled with people having pillow fights. There were feathers everywhere. The streets were so thick with feathers that it looked like snow. We certainly weren’t expecting that! http://www.pillowfight.info/

We wandered up California Street to a block of trendy bars. We went to “Perbacco”, sat on stools at a high table in the window. We ordered a glass of prosecco each and a series of appetizers. The food was phenomenal. We ended with dessert with matching a dessert wine. Another SF slap up. The Kasyers would approve. I think it’s probably just as well that we are leaving California tomorrow.

Last day with the Kaysers

Awake at 4.30 this morning. David got up and went to the lounge again so as not to disturb me. I was wide awake and sat up in bed e-mailing on my iPhone. I e-mailed David to say he could come back up to the room and we had to hang on until 6.30 for breakfast. I had a healthier option this morning of fruit, yogurt, granola and wheat bread toast. Tried to sleep a bit, but woke up dazed and confused. I decent cup tea might have helped, but I’ll have to wait a while for that. Possibly for over a month.

We had a quick look in Borders on Union Square and met the Kaysers outside a bagel shop on Market Street. We wandered down to the ferry building for tea. Chloe bonded with a number of hounds including one called Chloe! It was still chilly and foggy at 11am and we wondered whether it would be worth going to Sausalito across the bay as we might not have decent views. After Amy & George checked out, we got in the Gurg Mobile and went up Nob Hill, past the marina and over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. I will never cease to be impressed by the views of this part of the world. I am usually the one driving over the bridge, but this time I could take the vista in properly.

Sausalito was packed, but as charming as ever. I think Amy was disappointed that we didn’t go to a restaurant called the Spinnaker – we just used their car park. Sausalito has a real European feel and has quite a few little Italian casual restaurants. We stopped at one and had pizza and Panini while sitting outside admiring the views across the bay to San Francisco.

Amy and George dropped us off at our hotel and we said goodbye as they were driving back to San Luis. It was really good to see them and I hope we’ll meet up again soon. I wonder where – California? Hawaii? Tokyo?

Chloe meet Chloe

Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

We both woke up before 4am (9pm Japan time). I tried to go back to sleep. David got up and went to the lounge to read papers and drink coffee. At 7am we were wandering the foggy streets of San Francisco looking for a diner. We found a time-warp diner on Stockton and Sutter and ordered a proper American breakfast. I love the buttermilk pancakes and maple syrup, but once a year is probably sufficient.

We caught up with the Kaysers around 10 and Gurg drove us along the pacific ocean road, past immense waves far out to sea to SF Zoo. We though Chloe would enjoy seeing the animals, but in fact we all enjoyed it. It’s a lovely place as zoos go.

We’ve been to SF four or five times now and know it quite well, but we’d never been to Haight Ashbury so we headed there for lunch. It still has a hippy vibe despite being ground zero for the summer of love hippy scene way back in 1967.

After a quick stop at Golden Gate Park and a rest back at the hotel, we reconvened with the Kaysers and headed out for drinks on the terrace of a restaurant on Steuart Street and then into a recommended restaurant called Perry’s for yet another gourmet feast. They had a half price promotion on bottles on wine and we went for a Russian River Valley pinot noir called something like Onmia. We visited that region on our last trip and loved it. Must come back to California again.

Catching up with old friends

We checked in, freshened up (it would be a mistake to sleep) and wandered down past the Embarcadero Centre to the Ferry Building for some Mexican food. Note to self, don’t order anything that is called a “platter” unless you haven’t eaten for a week. I had stupidly forgotten about the portion sizes and barely made a dent in my tamales and tacos. It was good though. I also had a coke which is really unusual for me as I find it too sweet, but it does help when you are struggling to keep awake. The large Assam tea at Peet’s helped too. I’d also forgotten how good the tea is at Peet’s Café. We called Amy and George who were driving up with their daughter Chloe from San Luis Obispo to spend the weekend with us in San Francisco. We arranged to meet them later at their hotel.

We caught up with the Kaysers in the lobby for a while and then walked with them through China town to North Beach (that isn’t a beach, but has lots of character and some nice cafés). We stopped at an old style café called “Café Trieste” and joined the diverse (OK, random) bunch of customers inside. Notable characters: the 90 year old toothless lady, the guy dressed as a priest who said he used to be a child psychologist who came over to Chloe and scared her to death (he also though Chloe was a boy), and the sixty-something Chinese lady in the Inuit hat and flashing way too much cleavage than was appropriate. Yep, there were all sorts. It was the best tea I had all weekend though (and will probably be the best tea I will have on my whole trip - it has seriously gone down hill since then).

We wandered slowly back through Chinatown which was nicely atmospheric at dust, lounged around at the Omni hotel chatting for a while and then headed out to Belden Lane just near the hotel where we’d heard that there was a row of good restaurants. We chose a Catalan tapas restaurant called B44. We have never had a bad meal in San Francisco, and this one was really excellent. It was great to sit outside on the terrace (under heat lamps) too. I really like how knowledgeable Californian restaurant staff are about the menu and wines. Our waiter really gave us some excellent recommendations.

Getting to San Francisco

Friday February 12^th, 2010 - twice

Going back in time always gives me a buzz even if it does throw my body clock out for days. The second version of February 12^th was definitely an improvement on version 1 (drive to work in the snow, run around work getting all my last jobs done, trip to the ward office to pick up my new alien registration card, hold ups at check-in…). As soon as we crossed the international date line, things improved. Nice airplane dinner (really!) a couple of good movies (“The invention of lying” and “My one and only”) and a hassle free breeze through immigration at San Francisco airport. As we waited for our turn, we helped a group of middle aged Japanese women on a package tour get ready for the questions that the immigration officials might ask them. They practiced with each other:

What is your name?

Shite-o-sheeing (sightseeing)

The first time we came to San Fran we flew business class and stayed at the Fairmont. Naturally we took a taxi from the airport to the hotel. This time we took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) to a modest hotel in the financial district. We will be away for 5 weeks after all, no point blowing all our funds in the first 3 days. Actually, the BART is really good and we couldn’t get over how empty it was. I supposed we have become so used to crowded Tokyo trains.

Hat options

Just doing the last bit of packing...
Should we bring our hiking hats.... or buy sombreros when we get to Mexico?

Off to Mexico!

After months (no, years actually) of planning, today is the day that we start our trip. Hooray! I have been slaving over my laptop day and night trying to get all my work done before I go and what I didn't get done, I will leave until I get back at the end of March.

By Wednesday, we'll be in Xalapa, but first we get to see Amy & George who are driving up to San Francisco from San Luis with little Chloe for the weekend. We'll also be in Mexico City for a couple of nights. We are hooking up with my friend Sergio's son, Sergio Junior who will help us organise the bus ticket to Xalapa.

All for now. More when I get to San Francisco.

More about Xalapa, Veracruz:
http://www.xalapa.net/
http://www.bestday.com/Xalapa/

Details of the University we will be based at (self-access centre)
http://www.uv.mx/portalcadi/asesorias.html