This weekend was the best weekend ever. No joke.
It started off with a TON of sleep--Joel and I both slept for almost 11 hours!--and I set off by myself nice and early in the morning to attend a Textile Festival in a part of town I had never been to before. I took the subway to the end of Line 7, and eventually figured out how to catch an unnumbered bus (with the help of a friendly university student) to my destination. This was the first miracle ^^ I had just been talking the night before about how I want to figure out the weird bus system here! Tahdah!
And then, so many awesome things started happening.
1. I saw some embroidery work done over fabric pleated very tiny and tight, which looked just like the kind of embroidery I've been trying to do on the neck and cuffs of a 16th century linen shirt that has been in the works for something like three years! I talked to the two ladies sitting there and one gave me her contact information so that we could share information--she has been trying to learn more about the origin of this type of embroidery work and she wants to know all about it's use in early modern Europe! She thinks the Spaniards brought the technique and it has been adapted by local seamstresses who embroider local and native motifs into it! I want help figuring out how to design my embroidery, too. Win-win!!
2. I found a lady with samples of various naturally-occurring shades of cotton! I'd heard about this phenomenon, but I'd never seen it before!! So I bought a few tufts ranging from white to a burnt umber orange color. In case I ever teach my fashion history class again.. Also, I posted pictures on a fb group and asked if we know of any European use of colored cotton in the 16th or 17th centuries.
3. I bought the most gorgeous woven wool rug!!! I saw it and it was like the colors saturated my soul and sunk into my bones and I just had to have it. :) Happily, it folds up nice and small and wasn't too heavy to carry around.
4. (and this is where it starts getting GOOD) I wandered into a saturday bazaar next door, which was kind of a fancy boutique artisan's market. One shop in particular caught my eye: there were masks, corazones, painted ceramics, and votive pieces all over the walls. I decided to buy a corazon and ended up talking to the shop owner and her daughter, telling them that I am new in town, but will be here for two years, and that I'm looking for something to do, and that my background is in museums, particularly collections management.. At that point the shop keeper started paying really close attention. Turns out she is an artist and is writing a book and needs help cataloging her (and her father's) folk art collection!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like, could there BE a better thing for me to hear at that very moment?!?!??
We are in touch now and will be getting together sometime this week to discuss the possibility :D
5. I found this painter who paints these sweet little still lives (in spanish they are literally called "dead nature") and I will one day buy one of them.
6. I was walking along, about to leave the area, when I saw a street cart vendor making cheeseburgers and I suddenly felt faint with hunger and HAD to stop and buy one. And it was THE BEST cheeseburger I have EVER eaten, hands down. He toasted the outside of the buns while putting mayo, ketchup, mustard and chopped tomato on the inside of one half, and he grilled the thinnest, broadest hamburger patty I have ever seen. You know how meat shrinks when it cooks? Well, this was such a broad patty, and so thin, that it shrank to JUST the size of the bun. And the slice of american cheese melted on top.. And then he put it all together and it cost 25 pesos (or about 1$) and I was in HEAVEN. So many capitalized words in here because there is no other sufficient way to describe it. :) I think maybe the small amount of meat made the ratios just right? or the tomato was just ripe? or the buns just warm enough? I don't know, but it was like magic, it was so good. I sat and savored it. Some food you will never forget...
7. Then I called an Uber to go home since I didn't want to take the time for public transit and it was hot and I had to carry the rug... It was rather expensive (like 7$ instead of 2$), but it ended up being well worth it! The driver struck up a conversation with me that kind of ranged all over! We talked about national forests, religion, charity work, family values... He told me that he and his wife and two kids had just moved back to Mexico City after 10 months in Guadalajara because his job there was too demanding and didn't leave him with any time for his family and kids! So the money wasn't worth it and he quit. Now he is driving Uber until he finds another job. And we talked about how kids need to spend quality, loving time with their family, and how that is the best indicator of their future success. And suddenly an idea popped into my head: if they are a little down and out now, with him just driving Uber, maybe...maybe his wife would be interested in teaching me Mexican cooking! And before I could talk myself out of asking a perfect stranger for cooking lessons, I did it! And she texted me yesterday saying she would be happy to!! And we are going to discuss details this afternoon! I don't even know where they live >< or how much to pay or how many weeks to do it, but I am excited!!
8. After talking out all my excitement to Joel when I got home, we took a nap. The plan was to go to the temple in the evening, so at 5 we checked the internet to find out when the sessions were scheduled. Turns out 6pm was the last one!! So we ran out of the house, called an Uber, and made it to the temple by 5:52pm. Somehow, miraculously, someone important was also running late, so they were holding the session, and we made it in!! And standing in the celestial room afterwards, I got the warm, full feeling that I am happy to be in Mexico. That it will be good to be here, that I will be grateful to be here.
And that, my friends, is how I ended the day, with a complete about-face from my melancholy of the week. Mexico looks bright and friendly and exciting now, a place where anything is possible if I just open my heart to look for it and open my mouth to ask for it.
oh, and p.s. here is miracle #9: I did ALL of that in SPANISH!
It started off with a TON of sleep--Joel and I both slept for almost 11 hours!--and I set off by myself nice and early in the morning to attend a Textile Festival in a part of town I had never been to before. I took the subway to the end of Line 7, and eventually figured out how to catch an unnumbered bus (with the help of a friendly university student) to my destination. This was the first miracle ^^ I had just been talking the night before about how I want to figure out the weird bus system here! Tahdah!
And then, so many awesome things started happening.
1. I saw some embroidery work done over fabric pleated very tiny and tight, which looked just like the kind of embroidery I've been trying to do on the neck and cuffs of a 16th century linen shirt that has been in the works for something like three years! I talked to the two ladies sitting there and one gave me her contact information so that we could share information--she has been trying to learn more about the origin of this type of embroidery work and she wants to know all about it's use in early modern Europe! She thinks the Spaniards brought the technique and it has been adapted by local seamstresses who embroider local and native motifs into it! I want help figuring out how to design my embroidery, too. Win-win!!
2. I found a lady with samples of various naturally-occurring shades of cotton! I'd heard about this phenomenon, but I'd never seen it before!! So I bought a few tufts ranging from white to a burnt umber orange color. In case I ever teach my fashion history class again.. Also, I posted pictures on a fb group and asked if we know of any European use of colored cotton in the 16th or 17th centuries.
3. I bought the most gorgeous woven wool rug!!! I saw it and it was like the colors saturated my soul and sunk into my bones and I just had to have it. :) Happily, it folds up nice and small and wasn't too heavy to carry around.
4. (and this is where it starts getting GOOD) I wandered into a saturday bazaar next door, which was kind of a fancy boutique artisan's market. One shop in particular caught my eye: there were masks, corazones, painted ceramics, and votive pieces all over the walls. I decided to buy a corazon and ended up talking to the shop owner and her daughter, telling them that I am new in town, but will be here for two years, and that I'm looking for something to do, and that my background is in museums, particularly collections management.. At that point the shop keeper started paying really close attention. Turns out she is an artist and is writing a book and needs help cataloging her (and her father's) folk art collection!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like, could there BE a better thing for me to hear at that very moment?!?!??
We are in touch now and will be getting together sometime this week to discuss the possibility :D
5. I found this painter who paints these sweet little still lives (in spanish they are literally called "dead nature") and I will one day buy one of them.
6. I was walking along, about to leave the area, when I saw a street cart vendor making cheeseburgers and I suddenly felt faint with hunger and HAD to stop and buy one. And it was THE BEST cheeseburger I have EVER eaten, hands down. He toasted the outside of the buns while putting mayo, ketchup, mustard and chopped tomato on the inside of one half, and he grilled the thinnest, broadest hamburger patty I have ever seen. You know how meat shrinks when it cooks? Well, this was such a broad patty, and so thin, that it shrank to JUST the size of the bun. And the slice of american cheese melted on top.. And then he put it all together and it cost 25 pesos (or about 1$) and I was in HEAVEN. So many capitalized words in here because there is no other sufficient way to describe it. :) I think maybe the small amount of meat made the ratios just right? or the tomato was just ripe? or the buns just warm enough? I don't know, but it was like magic, it was so good. I sat and savored it. Some food you will never forget...
7. Then I called an Uber to go home since I didn't want to take the time for public transit and it was hot and I had to carry the rug... It was rather expensive (like 7$ instead of 2$), but it ended up being well worth it! The driver struck up a conversation with me that kind of ranged all over! We talked about national forests, religion, charity work, family values... He told me that he and his wife and two kids had just moved back to Mexico City after 10 months in Guadalajara because his job there was too demanding and didn't leave him with any time for his family and kids! So the money wasn't worth it and he quit. Now he is driving Uber until he finds another job. And we talked about how kids need to spend quality, loving time with their family, and how that is the best indicator of their future success. And suddenly an idea popped into my head: if they are a little down and out now, with him just driving Uber, maybe...maybe his wife would be interested in teaching me Mexican cooking! And before I could talk myself out of asking a perfect stranger for cooking lessons, I did it! And she texted me yesterday saying she would be happy to!! And we are going to discuss details this afternoon! I don't even know where they live >< or how much to pay or how many weeks to do it, but I am excited!!
8. After talking out all my excitement to Joel when I got home, we took a nap. The plan was to go to the temple in the evening, so at 5 we checked the internet to find out when the sessions were scheduled. Turns out 6pm was the last one!! So we ran out of the house, called an Uber, and made it to the temple by 5:52pm. Somehow, miraculously, someone important was also running late, so they were holding the session, and we made it in!! And standing in the celestial room afterwards, I got the warm, full feeling that I am happy to be in Mexico. That it will be good to be here, that I will be grateful to be here.
And that, my friends, is how I ended the day, with a complete about-face from my melancholy of the week. Mexico looks bright and friendly and exciting now, a place where anything is possible if I just open my heart to look for it and open my mouth to ask for it.
oh, and p.s. here is miracle #9: I did ALL of that in SPANISH!
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