Going out in Mexi style

It's incredibly hard to believe that this time last year, I was just coming back from a two-week trip in Mexico following my three-month internship with the Associated Press. This time around, I know for sure that I'm coming back to the D.F. and I have a job, no matter how dubious or lackluster it might be. End-of-the-year trips in Mexico have included a tranquil, lazy weekend in the colorful colonial city of Guanajuato, a toasty long weekend in Puerto Escondido with Matt and his parents (who stayed for 10 days, lucky), and a Sunday hike to Ajuso, a mountain just outside Mexico City and reachable by a series of 2-peso metro rides and 4-peso bus rides for a 1.5-hour journey. Here are some pics. Perhaps I'll add witty comments when I feel like it.

El Pípila in Guanajuato
Santa Fe hotel with the Peters in Puerto Escondido
Being cold in the forests of Ajusco.

Choonimals for Charity

As most of you probably know, my boyfriend Matt and five of his friends own Choonimals Clothing Company, a T-shirt company that prints "abstract" animals onto American Apparel gear. This December, the company is designating 10 percent of all sales to La Casa de la Sal, a Mexico City orphanage for children and teens living with HIV/AIDS.

We kicked off the event by making a US$500 donation and publishing a subsequent promotional video (www.choonimals.com/charity). The goal is to raise $500 more to make a second donation.

Five hundred bucks is certainly a lot of money for most people in Mexico - it's a lot of money for me. It was definitely a weird feeling when we purchased $500-worth of medicine for the pharmacy and left with around 10 small boxes of prescriptions that fit into one petite plastic bag. Considering the average cost per child there is 10,000 pesos a month (about $775), with 25 kids at the orphanage and 40 enrolled in the home-care program, 500 bucks is kind of a small clink in the proverbial bucket. The nurses, however, were incredibly happy with the work we were doing for the orphanage, and it was nice to know that at least they thought we were making a difference even if to me it felt like a trivial act of charity.

That said, buy some Choons and help the niños!

Una Navidad Mexicana

Whereas the Christmas season in the United States is bombarded with commercialism, advertisements and 24-hour caroling, Christmas in Mexico is overwhelmed with a nonstop onslaught of seasonal festivities. From the end of November to early January, the central Zócalo plaza becomes the "world's largest" ice skating rink that's free to the public, and several main streets in the historical center are shut down so that posadas, similar to nativity scenes, can take over during the nine days leading up the Christmas Eve. The main Reforma thoroughfare is also dotted with Bethlehem-esque wood shacks, although these ones feature coolers of Pepsi products instead of a baby Jesus. In the middle of Reforma is the "world's tallest" Christmas tree. Listen to my friend Grant's story on World Vision report here.

It's hard to list all of the magical things that are going on around Mexico City during this holiday season because anywhere you look, a pointed and tinsely piñata will invariably be hanging from a tree, ceiling or rooftop. Jolly drivers will stick reindeer antler or a Santa hat out the windows or on the roof of their cars. Nativity scenes, complete with every farm animal imaginable and all of Bethlehem's residents, will appear out of nowhere, the carpets of straw and plastic figurines making passersby pause to gawk/cross themselves/reflect.

Tonight, I attended the Ballet Folklórico de México de Amalia Hernández (one of the most popular in Latin America)'s Christmas presentation, which included the Angel Gabriel defeating dancing devils and delivering the good news to Mary, plus the Three Wise Men offering mariachis and "china poblanas" to a proud Joseph and Mary and baby Hay-zeus. I intended to attach an audio clip, but apparently I'm not saavy enough/you can't do it. Regardless, I now have a fun-sounding track of some face-paced stomping and "ayayayayay"-style mariachi music.

Also, last night I purchased a Rosca de Reyes bread. The dessert is traditionally served on Jan. 6, the Three Kings Day, but after tasting one preemptively at a bakery chain I just had to have another. I think it's pretty much like fruitcake, but I've never had U.S. fruitcake so I'm only making a guess here. It's basically sweet bread with candied fruits on top and tiny holy figurines inside. According to tradition, at a Rosca celebration, family members will pass around the circular bread and cut their own slices. Whoever finds a figurine in their cake is charged with hosting a party sometime soon. Since I found two figurines and it was at during a tiny dinner party at my house, I'm going to assume that those cancel each other out. Here's what was left:

FELIZ NAVIDAD!