Castilo de Chapultepec

Me outside of the Castilo de Chapultepec.

As I mentioned last weekend when I went to the Bosque de Chapultepec with my coworker, we stopped into the Castilo de Chapultepec which used to be a presidential residence and is now the National History Museum. The castle is on the top of a hill in the middle of the park.

Here are some of the pictures I took!

The main entrance staircase.

The mural above the staircase entrance.

There were murals everywhere. Some were what you would expect to see and others looked like that!

Gardens. It started pouring while we were inside.

One of the bedrooms with really high ceilings.

Beautiful stained glass.

Cupcake Love

A block or two away from my house there is a lovely little cupcake cafe called ¨Cupcake Love.¨ It has a Beatles theme, with Beatles music playing and the cupcakes all named after a Beatles song. They even give you your bill inside a box with the British flag on it. 

I went there last weekend with two of my roommates. I got there after them and found out they have been waiting 20 minutes for their drinks. I ordered mine and it came very fast and even had this cute decoration on it:

mmmm, sweet and spicy chai tea.

Although I didn´t get a cupcake this time, I did have one for my birthday and thought the frosting was super delicious. We did get some free cookies, but unfortunately I was full. They serve food and brunch on Saturdays and have free Wi-fi, making it a great place to check emails or study.

Bosque De Chapultepec

This past weekend the weather was not great, which I think was due to the tropical depression moving along the west coast of Mexico. It rained pretty much all day Saturday, so I went grocery shopping and relaxed.

On Sunday I was hoping to go to a volcano with my roommate, but we decided to place our bets on one of the next few weekends being better weather. Instead, I went with my coworker to Bosque de Chapultepec, which is apparently the largest park in Latin American and is about a 20 minute walk from my house. Bosque actually means forest.

It took us a while to find each other because the park is huge and neither of us could successfully reach our meeting point. I entered the park in a peaceful area but soon found myself on a road with tons of people and vendors selling everything from water to toys. They were also yelling out what they had and the price, which made it extremely loud.

We finally met at the zoo. There is a zoo, a couple of lakes, and a bunch of museums in the park. We eventually made our way to the castle and went inside (which is the National History Museum and former Presidential residence). I´ll post some pictures from that soon.

I have to say the most entertaining thing about the park was people taking photographs of squirrels. Someone would bait the squirrel with food and a whole group would crowd around to take pictures of it. The worst part was they were gray and scraggly looking squirrels, not exactly a picture to hang on the wall?

Fancy Salmon

So, Argentinian steakhouses seem to be a thing here. I have been out to eat four times since I got here and three of those times were at Argentinian steakhouses. Luckily they serve delicious salads and empanadas.

Last week I decided I was tired of salad, since I have it for lunch basically every day, so I ordered one of the house specials, which was a salmon carpaccio. I was expecting some thinly sliced raw salmon. When I asked the guy if it was a lot of food he said no, so I ordered an empanada and some french fries to go with it.

When I actually got my food it was really entertaining. They set up a little tray next to the table with a bunch of toppings, lime juice, and olive oil and got to work. The waiter diligently and slowly sprinkled capers, onions, hard boiled egg, and salt on top. It must have taken 15 minutes. He finished it off with a super fancy drizzle of olive oil using a spoon and fork. I need to learn the technique!

Well, it came with bread and turned out to be a lot of food. Definitely didn´t need the french fries! I prefer my salmon plain with some capers, but it was worth it to watch.

Parque Hundido

I get a two hour lunch break every day, from 2 to 4. I normally go to the gym for an hour to an hour and a half, then eat my lunch at my desk while I update my blog, write emails, or read the news. But last week the other intern, Elena, started, so now I have someone I can do things with during lunch.

I lifted weights quickly then we took of to Parque Hundido, which means the sunken park. It is a little below street level. It was about a mile and a half walk from our office.  Elena's taxi driver that morning had talked it up to her and said we should check out the beautiful flower clock. We were really excited to find the clock and were disappointed when we got there:

Not even a single flower! Our coworkers said they had never seen it like this and guessed that they were changing the flowers out. 

Well, even though we didn't see the flower clock with actual flowers on it, it was nice to get into some green space in this sprawling city. Maybe we'll head back in a month and see if its any different.

Where I'm Living

Here are a few pictures from where I am staying. I am on the top (third) floor until the end of June.

This is the view from my room looking down onto the street corner. The brown building is a bar with a lot of beer. Next to it is a main street with really loud traffic. Also that is definitely barbed wire! The street is closed, on this end you need a key to unlock the gate and get in. On the other end where cars can come in there are security guards.

I get to enjoy this nice big bathroom all to myself while I'm up here.

This is the door leading out of my room. Across is the entrance to the rooftop.

And finally the cute patio behind the kitchen. I had to come down those winding stairs from the roof last weekend when we got locked out. The square with the reddish cover is the water well.

Mariachi Singers

On Saturday night we went out to a local cantina for some drinks. At first it was mostly men, but it soon filled up with other women and lots of mariachi singers!

On of my roommate´s coworkers hired these guys to play us some songs. I believe it was 4 or 5 pesos per song, and they have a list you can choose from. They were really good and super cute!

Singing her the Mexican birthday song, which is definitely not Cumpleaños Feliz, even though that is what I have always learned.

After they left our table, those two guys were in the cantina forever (they also gave us their business cards). They were really popular.

There were also numerous vendors who came in and out trying to sell us candy, flowers, little gifts, etc. Here are my roommates having fun with one of the colorful candy items (although it is not sweet at all and honestly tasted like the wafers you use for communion at church). 

We had a lot of fun and it was a great first going out experience for me in Mexico City!

Coyoacan/San Angel Market

I finally have my camera cord, which means time for a few pictures! On Saturday I went to the suburbs/neighborhoods of Coyoacan and San Angel, which are in the southern part of Mexico City.

This square was filled with beautiful artwork and photographs. Most of it was too expensive or too big for me to buy, but I wish I could! We also went into the bazaar where there were a ton of vendors selling handmade crafts. I couldn't resist buying a couple of gifts and something for myself. 

After walking around for a while we were really hungry. We went to find a place with a cheap "comida corrida," which I guess roughly translates to a running lunch, but basically means a three course lunch for a good price. We went to a different, cheaper market and my roommate asked the vendors where a clean place to eat was.

Sauces on the table.

The restaurant.

There was a choice soup, salad or rice, and 5 different meals for around $3.50. It also came with flavored water. I had soup with pasta, the salad which was actually cooked vegetables, and a chile relleno with sauce and tortillas. I had a little bit of a jello like substance for dessert, but I was full after all the other food.

After lunch we went to a restaurant with supposedly the best margaritas in Mexico City. They were very delicious and just as good as one Aaron and I would make at home, but without all the work.

Two of my roommates enjoying their frozen margaritas.

In the meantime....

I was supposed to get the package with my camera cord in it today, but I didn't. Don't worry, pictures will be coming soon, I hope. I was waiting to post about the weekend until I can post the pictures I took. I had a great time laying in the sun, going to a market, drinking margaritas and going out for some mezcal. The weather was sunny and warm all weekend.

The second week of my internship has been going well, I've been translating and writing some things for the website. I got rained on today, but luckily I had my raincoat!

I hope to have some better posts with pictures soon.

Workshop at the OECD

Today I was able to attend a workshop that Fundacion Ethos put on at the OECD office in Mexico. Ethos just finished a publication on tax expenditures (basically benefits/incentives/tax breaks and their effect on economic development), so they had an expert on the topic come from France for two days to present and talk about it with the actors involved in the tax process here. Since I'm so into development and economics, it was really cool to be at the OECD office with people from the World Bank and the Mexican Ministry of Finance.

I have been busy helping organize the visit all week and was happy to have a chance to sit and listen for a while. Even so, it was an exhausting day! While I understand most of the Spanish, it is tiring to translate in my head and try to catch every word people say. Unlike with English, if I miss a word of Spanish I usually lose the whole meaning of the sentence.

Some quirks of the day (all related to traffic):

• My supervisor picked me up at 6:50, hoping to beat the traffic which was apparently horrendous yesterday. We beat the traffic and got there an hour before everyone else and two hours before the workshop finally started (no one else beat the traffic). He took me to Starbucks to make up for it.

• Our taxi driver fell asleep at a red light. We had to wake him up.

• It only took 20 minutes to get to the OECD office, but it took an hour to get back. My colleagues were going out to lunch to talk about the publication, but wanted to go somewhere close to where I live so I could walk home. We left at 2:45 and traffic was so bad we didn't get to my neighborhood until 3:45. I ate lunch at 4:00.

• I ate a big lunch.