Farewells, Mexican traditions and multiculti hubbub

I was not very active in terms of blogging for family circumstances... H. tried to console me with a crazy amount of Korean candy, "adorned" with hidden personal messages on each package...

...and although I normally don't have a sweet tooth, it somehow worked...

I also consoled myself buying some Tteok, which is a Korean treat, but very closely resembles Japanese mochi. I opted for my beloved kinako mochi version (sticky rice cakes sprinkled with roasted soy bean flour). Oh, was it good.

Korean Injeolmi Tteok aka Japanese Kinako Mochi

Well, life must go on and thankfully Mexico City always has sooo much to offer that'll take your mind off things... Always going on something. Well, or not going on at all. A loyal travel companion has left me forever. Together we travelled 3 months in Spain, 3 months in Japan, 2 months in Vietnam, 1 in China, 7 in Thailand, a bit in Cambodia, another month in Peru and more than one year in Mexico. And now it's over. Rest in peace, my dear camera...

Now I have to put up with my crappy "bargain", bought back then in Thailand after my faithful Lumix had shown first signs of decrepitude. Luckily, H. disposes of a pretty nice SLR camera, so there is no lack of good pictures. But then again she's the one who reviews them first, which results in approximately 95% 99% less photos of herself than I had initially taken... This is one of the rare shots taken on a Sunday "morning" with my cheesy "new" Sony (which doesn't even have an image stabilizer - howdy, blur!). I like it, but I'm damn sure if I had it taken with her SLR its lifetime had been around 10 seconds...

Coinciding with the recent circumstances of "farewells", autumn is approaching...

However, Mexico City doesn't change too much during the seasons. This photo was taken by H's mom in Korea.

... and with it the "Día de Muertos" (Day of the Dead). H. and me went to the neat "Coyoacán" area to watch some of the activities, but actually the whole city was spectacular:

We also had a costume party at work - I was not aware of how much Mexicans love to dress up. From 31/10 to 2/11 it's all devils and skeletons - especially "La Catrina". I was somehow forced to masquerade as such, too - while thinking all the time "WTF I'm I doing here..." (and I actually don't care when reinforcing the image of the "serious German", because compared to "the Mexican" this is so true anyway).

The left woman is my boss.

I once again noticed that Mexicans are really "buena onda" (Mexican slang for being on a good vibe). Yet, I so much more feel comfortable with Asian values and mentalities. Recently, one of H.'s friends from Thailand celebrated her birthday party. As she works at the Thai embassy, the two chefs who normally cook for the Thai embassador and his banquets cooked up for us. Oh man, my memory of awesome Thai food was not exaggerated at all - it is that good as I had remembered. I could have eaten the whole evening (what I actually did), but people were so nice that I dutifully made some breaks to be able to politely have some conversation without a mouth full of pad thai, larb (the Thai salad, not larD), and khao pad.

Germany, Korea, Venezuela, Thailand x 2 (ah, and India in the very back)

Multiculti party with Thai, Spanish, Mexican, German, Korean, Indian, Jamaican, French, and Venezuelan presence. The second one in the front row in the green polka dot dress is J., the birthday girl. The Mexican, Venezuelan and French guys didn't make it into the picture as they totally complied with their stereotype of punctuality.

There you have it - time's running crazily fast. B., my German fellow student who also made his internship in Mexico City, has already finished and is now on his way to an extended stay in Colombia (Love is in the air...).

On one of his last weekends we went to the MUAC, the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo. It was my idea and I only carefully asked B. if he would like to accompany me, although I was already sceptical. He did say yes, but I soon noticed that he was not that thrilled about the exposition as I was. It was still enjoyable, but as I realized his limited interest, I spent much less time there as I actually could have spent.

Corn + Heat = Popcorn. Corn + excessive heat = Burnt corn.

Urban design. I became aware of how much picture language is used in Mexican public spaces, as the society still has to deal with a considerable rate of poor literacy skills (many times you hear adults read very slowly and aloud an actually very easy word or sentence on a public sign).

B. having one of several breaks during our visit to the museum. His facial expression says it all...

Unfortunately, H. is not so fond of art museums, either. So, once we went to the public zoo. Admission is free, but so are the compounds - what I want to say is that we hardly spotted any animals - many of the compounds seemed to be free of any animal... The area was still nice, though:

Zoológico de Chapultepec - not many animals, but at least nice artworks.

Let's end this post with some more insights into cultural differences. Interestingly, just as in Japan, Koreans distinguish colors somehow differently. Although they can use "green" and "blue" as we do in the Western world, when they speak Korean their perception is different. While my eyes according to my passport are blue, for a Korean they are greenish.

It's the other way round with the "green" traffic light, which in Japan and Korea is "blue". 

Also when it comes to hygiene, there are great differences in what is considered "clean". Although I knew this already for some time, I'm still amazed by the fact that many Asian cultures cannot imagine to step into a room with shoes on, but then again they don't care to start cooking with unwashed hands, after long day outside in the city, having taken the subway, handled money, etc.

H. recently told me a funny story of a Korean friend who got kind of a culture shock: Said friend lives with a Mexican gay couple which apparently highly values a clean kitchen. Even the sink has to be permanently "clinically clean", which even challenged the tidy Koren woman. How clean these guys were. But then she hardly believed her eyes when she saw the very same men walk around in the flat in shoes. I have to laugh when I imagine that by Korean standards this is probably like for a Westerner would be disinfecting your hands every 5 minutes and then having your food on the floor of a public toilet. Multiculti truly is one of the most interesting and entertaining things.