Condesa

So today I woke up with plans to meet Lauren and her roommate Eric at el bosque de Chapultepec (Mexico's version of Central Park). We were planning to visit the different museums and maybe go paddle boating in one of the park's lakes, but I get a call this morning that Lauren is not feeling so great....shocker. But since I was already in transit when I got the phone call, I decided that I would just adopt a new route and go keep Lauren company in la colonía Condesa.

After about a 40 minutes metrobus ride, I meet Lauren at la parada Nuevo León and walk the short distance to her apartment. Lauren and Eric rent from/live with a 40-something gay chef masseuse in his trendy 3-bedroom apartment. His apartment is bright and modern, accented by large wooden furniture and white linens. Instead of a couch or end tables he has an arrangement of large square red velvet ottomans. Very fancy. There's even a decorative piece of furniture to store your shoes at the front door. Lauren also says that David (the owner) has a maid that comes every day, a driver, and a personal assistant that runs errands. But still, within a few minutes of meeting David, he left to run some errands, leaving me, Lauren, Eric, and David's 20-something boyfriend in the apartment. After talking for awhile, Lauren began to feel better and the four of us decided to go get something to eat.

Condesa appears to be the Bethesda of Mexico City. Several trendy restaurants and cafes line the well-maintained sidewalks spotted with consignment shops and used bookstores. The people in Condesa also appeared...nicer. It's difficult to explain why since I don't think they were dressed any differently than people near where I live in San Angel, but there was definitely a noticeable difference. Maybe the people in Condesa seemed more diverse; more shades of skin color, a larger variety of physical features, etc. When I take the Metrobus to work in the mornings, sometimes I forget that I don't have tanned skin with black hair and dark eyes. I think it was the change that was so refreshing.

We stopped to eat at a bar/café restaurant a few kilometers from their apartment. Since my stomach is still settling, I ordered some chicken and rice, while others ordered mushroom soup and some beef shish kabobs. The food was very delicious and was presented nicely on those swanky square plates, but it did seem a little overpriced. With tax and tip, my meal cost 120 pesos, about 3 times more than what I typically spend on lunch! But then I remembered the exchange rate, so my table service lunch in the nice part of town only cost about $9.

After Lunch, the four of us stopped by the local Superama, apparently the only commercial supermarket in Mexico City. I also learned that Superama is owned by none other than Walmart and that, apparently, you're supposed to tip the bag boys...oops. The things you learn by traveling with a Mexican! O, by the way, Eric, Lauren's friend, is 6 ft tall and also has short blond hair and blue eyes. So the 3 of us walking together are quite the spectacle. We asked our Mexican friend how we could appear less gringo (less American), and he suggested that we dye our hair black.....

When we left the grocery store, we headed back towards the apartment, but I decided to take off for San Angel as we passed the Metrobus stop. And since I've been home, I've watched the first few episodes of 30 Rock for the first time ever (which I think are pretty entertaining). I also had a run in with some of my housemates in the kitchen. You see, I was taking to my Danish friend about his day in English, and one of the Frenchies begins to mock us by saying some typical English/American phrase like "Aren't we so cool" or something. And so I stopped and said "ooo regardez moi, je porte une jupe bleue avec un chemise noir et je mange une crepe au fromage" which translates to "oh, look at me, I'm wearing a blue skirt and a black t-shirt and I'm eating a crepe with cheese." The entire kitchen reacts semi-surprised and I say "Not so bad, huh?" and then she repeats "Not soo baaahd, huh?" It was all in jest and definitely a unique conversation to have. I mean, how often can everyone mock how everyone else speaks in 3 different languages? It'll be sad to see many of them go after they take their last exams of the semester tomorrow, but also exciting because that means more new people will be coming next week.

OK. Time for bed. Remember that you can stay with me for free in Mexico City for 10 days and roundtrip plane tickets are only about $300! Just a thought...