Happy New Year!

I know, I know, it's quite early to say "Happy New Year". But I'll be away on the beach and I don't think I'll have WiFi. So, I just want to wish you all the best for this new year.

It was a really short post, but I'm really really excited about spending New Year's Eve on the beach.

Things you realize about Christmas (the year you are not celebrating them)

For several reasons this year I haven't celebrated Christmas. Main reason being that my family is more than 9,500 km away (that's 5,900 miles for the ones of you who use that stupid measuring system). And these couple of days (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) I've been thinking a lot about what is Christmas.

Those of you who know me are aware that I'm an atheist and I hate Christmas. However, all this has helped me put some perspective on it.

1) There is no thing as a "Christmas feeling". Seriously, people say that Christmas is in the air and all this stuff. It's not. Sure, there are decorations and everything, but I yet have to listen to a Christmas carol. I mean, back in my place you can't go on the street in December without listening to one of those stupid songs. Believe me, if there weren't all those decorations put up, no one would know it's Christmas.

2) Christmas is not about the presents. Of course, getting presents and all this shit is nice as hell, but I didn't get any this year, and, sure, I like to get them (basically because it means that it's stuff I don't need to buy myself), but it wasn't the part I missed the most.

3) I'm a known grump, and I'm always complaining about them, but the thing I missed the most was my family. They get tiring and all, but I missed them. It's one of the times when we are all together and talking about stuff, and having fun.

4) It's kind of sad that these moments of bonding within families happen only once a year. It's like as if we people needed the calendar to tell us when to get together. Why can't we have this kind of willingness to meet more often? Why do we need to do it for Christmas? You might get better along with someone in your family than with some other, but in the end of the day they remain your family.

5) Food is also important. I mean, like FOOD, for Christmas is when everyone steps up their cooking game and everything is delicious. I'm missing the food a lot. I actually bought some "turrons" in the supermarket, that yesterday tasted horrible and now I'm starting to like. I won't deny that I'm happy I'm skipping the whole "eat-like-a-pig" deal, mainly because that food makes you SO fat (and I'm not able to go running around here yet (I'm doing core training, like pretty heavily in the mornings, though)), but it's SO delicious.


It's funny how being away can make you change your mind about something, about what is important. And I've realized that the most important thing in life is having people who cares about you and loves you, and that's not only what Christmas is about, but also what life is about.

Going back in time

It's been a long time since I've written a post about Spanish politics. But since, maybe I'll never ever be able to complain about the government again (who knows? Wait for it), I've decided to write a new post about what has been going on.

If you are a post-WWII history enthusiast, I have good news for you, you won't need to go back in time to see if first-hand, you will only need to fly over to Spain. Reasons follow here:

1) The government is about to approve a new law regarding public safety. They are really worried about public safety apparently, because there have been lots of pacific demonstrations this year, and we all know that pacific demonstrations are DANGEROUS (yes, I'm being ironic, and yes I'm fuming). So, now the unauthorized demonstrations are prohibited, and they will fine you up to 30,000 euros (if I have understood correctly) if you take part on it, as if they were going to authorize protests against the things they are doing wrong. Oh, wait, you can't "attack" Spanish institutions either, so I guess that if you protest against the government you get finned too. Additionally, I don't know if it's in this law or what, security guards will be able to arrest people. If you want to read it all I found it here, but I'm too angry to keep reading (it's in Spanish, feel free to use Google Translate).

2) Our extraordinary government, is also VERY worried about women's rights. They are SO worried that they have decided to change the abortion law. Thing is, we had a really good abortion law, it was open and it worked with time points. Now, our beloved government, has decided to change it and you will only be able to abort in two cases: I) you are raped and you denounce, and only until the 12th week, II) there is a risk for the health of the mother (either psychiatric or physical), then it will be up to 22 weeks. If the fetus has a malformation you will need two certificates from two different doctors evidencing that first, the fetus has a malformation, and second, that it will lead to permanent psychiatric damage to the mother. WHO THE FUCK DO THEY THINK THEY ARE? See, you can be pro-choice or anti-choice (or whatever you call the ones that call themselves "pro-life"), having a child with a severe malformation is emotionally stressful for the mothers. Having to decide to abort because you know that your child is going to live a short and painful life, is stressful. It is not an easy choice. IT IS NOT. But at least you can decide about it. It's not like anyone is going to force you to abort if you don't want to. But let women decide on what they want to do. You might want to hear something funny. The people who have written this law were entirely men. ENTIRELY. Also, someone has got the idea to say that a 22-week-old fetus can live outside the womb independently. INDEPENDENTLY MY BALLS! These children need lots of special care and they usually need special care FOR LIFE. But, sure, that's business, since they are privatizing the FUCKING public health system. And they do it because they are good Christians and all. Of course, the church is happy with it. Because they know a lot about motherhood, I guess (suckers).

3) We all know that Spain is a land of wonder and happiness. However, inexplicably, there is a region that wants to get out of this marvelous country. Catalonia is going to have a referendum on their (our) possible independence on November the 9th 2014. Why? Well, we are one of the richest regions in Spain, in fact we are losing money every day we are in Spain. Have you seen the link? If not you should. Now? Yeah, it's pretty crazy, right? Well, we are the THIRD region in the world that pays the most taxes, but most of the money is lost. Forever. Also, we have our own differential culture, our own government (one of the oldest governments) and our own language. You might think that Spain should try to make us happy in order for us to stay and help with the economy. But apparently the Spanish government is stupid and decides to fuck with us as much as they can. For example, making Spanish the vehicular language in schools (when it was Catalan, and it will be). Also, since the whole pro-independence movement has strengthened, several people in Spain have menaced to take the tanks on the streets (bring the motherfucking tanks, losers) or to suspend the autonomy. Additionally, they won't allow us to do the referendum, and they keep telling us that we will end up out of the European Union, the Euro and the NATO (not that we wanted to be in the NATO in the first place...).

As you can see I'm very very very angry. Main reason is because THIS looks every time more and more like a dictatorship. And we have had enough of dictatorships. You don't believe me? When Franco was the dictator demonstrations were prohibited (1), abortion was prohibited (2) and anything regarding the Catalan government or the Catalan language was banned (3).

Did I get on the fucking Delorean?

Christmas traditions I'll be missing this year or finding the bright side of having to work during Christmas vacations

Christmas is literally around the corner and, even though I always complained about it when I was back home, I've come to realize that I'll be missing it. In Catalonia, and in my family, there are some different Christmas traditions, and because some are crazy, and because, as I said, I'll be missing them, I decided to write something about it. 

The tradition in Christmas Eve is the following (I want to make clear that I am talking about my family, it doesn't have to be exactly the same for all of them): first we have some kind of delicious dinner that involves the best sweets ever (turrons and neules (seriously, they are the BEST THING EVER, if you don't believe me go find a Spanish bakery where they sell them and try (don't buy them at the supermarket unless there is no other option))), after dinner we do something that we call "Cagar el tió". The "Caga-tió" is a Catalan tradition, this involves a log, that sometimes has a face painted on, that "brings" (the correct word is shits) presents for the children or the whole family. The thing is that the "tió" appears some days before Christmas Eve, I think it's around the 13th of December, and you have to feed him so it can shit presents (I just wrote that, but it is like this). Some families give him fruit peels because they are dicks, in my family we always gave him cookies and chocolate, which meant that he ended up constipated on Christmas Eve (but it was awesome). So, for the "tió" to shit you need to hit him with a stick, and that's the best part. I mean, you hit something and it gives you presents! Oh, my how much will I be missing it! Christmas Day and Boxing Day are boring compared to Christmas Eve, it is sure nice because you meet with the whole family and eat (if you have counted all the days, it's THREE days of eating like pigs, for me it could be about eating the sweets for the whole day and nothing would make me happier). 

On another hand, as you might have realized from the title, I am working these days. It is not too bad because I don't really feel as if it were Christmas. It's warm, I'm still wearing sandals, and I still have to hear a single Christmas carol (good for me). Today, we were only three at work, and my friend and I had lunch together sitting on the grass (not at the sun, because there were some stupid clouds covering it), we ate a salad she brought and some kind of paella I cooked. It was my first paella EVER, and it wasn't too bad, well it was quite good, but there is room for improvement (there is always room for improvement). We also ate some turró (the one you buy at the supermarket, I'm still waiting for the packet my dad sent me with delicious delicious turró to arrive. It was nice, and relaxing, and we are doing it again tomorrow because we still have food left. 

Small things (Part 5)

In October I dug through the archives to find this short story that I had been writing for ages. I promised I would manage to write the end while doing NaNoWriMo (learn from this, the next time I tell you I'll do something while doing NaNoWriMo, laugh at my face and tell me it's not happening). But now, I decided to rescue it again and finish it. 


Seth was one of these people that you know all your life but still can surprise you. We first met when we were six and became fast friends, maybe because we lived close to each other or because we had similar interests. Though, since we were so young it is difficult to pinpoint which were our affinities. We shared all our childhood and adolescence together and, when the time came to go to college, it was the first time that we would lead separate lives.

We were a weird couple, not only because I am a girl and he was a boy, but because even if we were always together we never had feelings for each other, and also because we had no other close friends. Growing up, everyone told me that I should have some girlfriends and do girly things, but I felt I could be feminine enough while still hanging out with Seth. I didn't have the need to waste my time talking make up or clothing. Back in hindsight, is as if we had been adults all our lives, talking about life and death when most of the kids were talking about TV shows. We were different.

I want to focus on the immediate period before Seth and I parted ways and went to college, that was the last summer of our lives, the best one, but also the saddest one. I took up a summer job to save some money for college, Seth passed his days reading books under a tree in his house's garden. I would go and pick him up to go to the beach or to the swimming pool, though I should actually say that I had to drag him around. Seth was never a people's person, but he was getting more introvert as he grew up, as I was getting much more outgoing. It was a pain to go out with him, sometimes having him mumbling insults at everyone who dared to approach him.

One day, I took him to a party that someone was throwing out as a farewell. He displayed his usual stubbornness saying that he didn't want to go and that there was no one interesting in there. He was always on the lookout for interesting people, and he was really frustrated that summer because he already knew everyone and no one was interesting enough. I guess that I was interesting enough so he could tolerate me, but I did never fulfill his needs. I finally got him in the car and drove to the party. He was silent all along and I never tried to make him speak. We got to the party and he behaved like a normal person for a while, a normal awkward person, but finally he got tired and started asking strange questions to the people who went to talk with him. I knew this strategy, it meant he wanted to stay alone and that he didn't care where it was, the ideal would have been on the moon for him. After a while I saw him talking to himself on a corner of the room and I knew it was time to leave. I didn't mind his talking, but I knew that people would think that he was crazier than he looked like and it would only do him wrong. Seth talked to himself a lot, but it was just an escape valve for his overloaded mind. He thought so much that he needed to relief the pressure, and the best way was to put his thinking in order out loud. We left the party and I drove him home, he had again stopped talking and seemed to be in his own world. That was a bit too much, I knew something was happening and I needed to know what was it. I dropped him off at his house and started planning how could I get to know what was going on inside his mind.

The following week I took a couple of days off in my summer job and picked up Seth for an excursion. He didn't actually knew where we were going or for how long, but since his perception of time and space was different to everyone else, he didn't actually mind. I packed enough food and camping stuff for both of us and drove him into the desert. I used to camp in the desert with my family when I was a kid so I knew exactly what I had to do and where I had to camp. Seth, on the other hand, had never been there and I felt that it was what he needed.

When we got to the place he was astonished. The vastness of it and the sense of solitude. He went and climbed a lonely rock and stood there for ten minutes. I wasn't counting on him to plant the tend so I started on my own. After a while he came back and started helping silently. When the sunset arrived I lit up a campfire to cook and he sat by it staring at the flames. He hadn't said anything since he got out of the car. It wasn't unusual, but it still made me uncomfortable, even if I talked to him he wouldn't take his eyes off the flames as if he were drinking energy from it. We ate in silence and stared at the stars, so shiny and so many.

After a while Seth sat up, looked at me and abandoned his silence.
-Why are you doing this?- he asked.
-Why not?
-I wouldn't do it.
-That's the main reason.- I replied.
He stared at me, then he sighed and closed his eyes.
-So, thank you, I guess.
He laid back with his eyes closed, but I could see he was still awake.
-I'm getting in the tent to sleep, goodnight.
He never replied, but I knew he had heard me, so I got into the tent and went to sleep.

The following morning the rays of sunshine woke me up. I looked by my side inside the tent, to see if Seth was there, he wasn't and his sleeping bag was as I had left it the previous day. He had clearly not come in to sleep. I stretched and got out of the tent. The fire had been off for hours, but it had burned down to ashes so Seth might have stayed until it went off. There was a blanket by the fireplace and some of the food I had laid off was missing. I wondered where would Seth be, I decided to have breakfast and wait for him for a while, if he hadn't come by midday I'd go look for him.

The hours passed by and Seth never appeared. I prepared a backpack with some stuff I thought I might need and took off. It was a really rocky desert, so there were many hiding spots, I made myself visible by wearing bright colors so Seth would know I was looking for him. I looked for him for hours, but as the sun was going down I decided to get back to the tent.

However, he wasn't there either. But he had been. He had taken all his stuff, and left a note. 

"Thanks for this. I've finally found what is right for me. Don't look for me, if I need you I'll find you. Have faith in yourself. Love, Seth."

I knew there was nothing I could do. If he had told me not to look for me, I wouldn't be able to find him even if I wanted to. I left with a heavy heart, wondering when I would see him again, what would he do with his life, and what to tell his parents. He took care about the last point, surprisingly, calling them, they were used to the eccentricities of their son, already, so they resigned silently. 

Seth told me he would find me if he needed me, and after all this years I still haven't known from him. I want to think that he is happy, wherever he is, that he is free, and that he is living the life he had always wanted. I really hope he is. But I will never know. 

(Finally) going out or the Winter Solstice

Yesterday, I finally managed to go out at night in the center of the city. Main reasons for not having done it before are mainly 1) this city is fucking big and I live really far from the center (and I'm afraid to get lost if I go anywhere on my own) 2) being invited to party's in people's houses (because if you can have EVERYTHING in one place why should you go out chasing who knows what).

So we went out to a really nice bar where they served "Mezcal" (I'm seriously having problems pronouncing stuff like a Mexican, I mean in Spain's Spanish the z sounds like a motherfucking z, in Mexican is an s, it doesn't make any sense and it makes my head hurt) and mexican beers. Also, we used a ladder as a side table to leave our drinks and our stuff. In there we had really interesting conversations about Spanish politics (it was not nice, shame on you, Spanish government, shame on you), Catalan independence (it's going to happen), books (it took profit to profess my undying love to one Mr. Hemingway) and places I should visit before leaving (which I won't be able to visit because I'm going to live in the lab for the next four weeks). After that we went to a gay disco. It was my first time in one of such, I guess that the main reason is that, somehow, I don't have gay friends in Barcelona to take me to the fun places. It was lots of fun, it had been ages since I had danced like that, and it was liberating not having to care about how I looked like (not that I care much, but inherently when you are at a disco you check out the boys around, and well... we know that everyone wants to look stunning (or something)). There was only one problem: it was completely crowded and I started to regret not having decided to wear shorts (remember it's December in here too), so after a while we decided to leave, and go hunting for some tacos. Some elusive tacos, because the place we wanted to go was no more. Which meant that I went to sleep really hungry and woke up hungrier still.

On a completely unrelated note, today is the Winter Solstice! It's one of my four favorite days of the year (the others being the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes and the Summer Solstice). And I'm thinking about cooking something yummy to celebrate it's finally winter (although it's warm like hell in here still). Yes, I'm weird, and yes I love being weird. By the way, I don't really feel like it's almost Christmas, mainly because of the weather and because there is a striking lack of Christmas lights on the streets, even in the center. I mean, in Barcelona you need to wear shades at night because there are so many Christmas lights around that they literally blind you, but not in here. I think there is a badass Christmas tree that I'm planning to go see tomorrow, but apart from that I haven't seen much.


(That was a long post, if you've made it here you deserve a cookie, so feel free to go buy yourself some).

Year's End Lab Lunch or eating pizza in the lab

Today was the last day at work for lots of people in the lab, so we ordered pizza and ate it there. Even if it is the second time they order pizza from that place I can't help but being surprised about the size of them. I think I could eat for a whole week with one of those pizzas (like lunch and dinner AT LEAST). There was also some tequila involved, though not much.

Thing is, we didn't do anything for half a day (at least), it was so relaxed, all of us eating pizza and talking, it was nice and it was bonding. I think that everyone at their jobs should have on of these days when you know you're not going to get anything done, but helps people understand each other better.

A street market or two months in here already

Today marks the start of my third month in here, when you come to think about it, it is kinda crazy. So, to celebrate I went with Tania, my friend from the lab, to eat at a street market close to the lab.

I was really impressed by the street market, you can literally find anything in there. There were fruit, meat, fish, clothes stalls. And also places where they cooked food. But it was surprisingly silent. Markets in Barcelona are one of the most noisy things you can find, with people shouting at you trying to get you to buy anything. However, in here people would talk to you but they won't shout. Another thing that surprised me was that they had raw meat and fish out in the open, there weren't any flies, but it struck me as unhygienic.

The thing is that we went to eat there. For 64 pesos (around 3,60 euros or close to 5 dollars) I ate: 2 "mixiote" tacos, one "panceta" taco, one "barbacoa" taco and a "nieve de rompope" (that would be something like Eggnog icecream). I also tried Tepache, which is a drink made from fermented pineapple with sugar and stuff. I still I don't know how I didn't burst, but I regret nothing, as everything was delicious.

Distance is a bitch

Today I hit a low, it's not the first time, but I'm still not used to it.

Tomorrow is going to mark my second month overseas. This means that I haven't seen most of the people I interact with on a daily basis for, at least, two months, and I realized that I do miss some of them, and that they are an important part of my life. Still, because I'm stubborn and because I am me, I won't reach out to most of them. 

These two months have passed faster than I thought they would, but, now, Christmas holidays are approaching and I think it's going to be harder than I thought it would (that's why today I bought some chocolate and ended up eating it all), specially taking into account that I'll need to go to the lab during most of the Christmas period, when almost no one else will be there. 

It's a mixed feeling, on one hand I want to go back to Barcelona, but on the other, I kinda wish I could stay more so I had time for experiments and for tourism. I guess that the perfect compromise would be to have here the people I need and miss (so I could take them all to the beach hahaha (well, this ended up better than I thought)).

A Mexican Party

Yesterday I went to a Mexican Birthday Party, where I learned a few things.

First: "Fashionably late" means a whole different thing in here. More like two fucking hours late. It got me on my nerves, I'm the kind of person who arrives earlier at the places and then waits for the exact time to get in.

Second: I'm maybe not as socially awkward as I thought, if the right people is around that is. I got there and my friend hadn't arrived yet. So I was in a room full of unknown people, and some of them made me sit down and start talking, from there it all went smooth and well.

Third: I will NEVER EVER get used to spicy food. There was food and as always my question was "Is it spicy?". However, I've also discovered that I like "nopales" very much.

Fourth: I might end up dancing salsa at some level. With the right partner that is, one that is tall enough to allow me to dance without taking off my shoes.

Fifth: the best part of this country is its people. Full stop. I don't really need to add anything else.

Jet lag (after TWO months?)

I still can't believe that after almost two months I'm still jet lagged! I wake up almost EVERY day between 3 and 5 am, and some times I just can't go back to sleep. I even started looking whether if it could be altitude sickness (it's not), or melatonin deficiency (fortunately for me I seem to have high levels of melatonin (it has been related with REM sleep)).

Yet, what is going on with me? My pineal gland has been completely unable to adapt to the time difference between Mexico and Barcelona. Maybe it is blind. I don't know, maybe it's just that it has finally adapted to the general miss-regulation that there is in my brain. Maybe it's just that it doesn't want me to be jet lagged when I go back.

But I think that the main problem is that my brain wants to go back to the beach, instead of having to go to the lab and do immunos.

I need to do sport or I'm planning to get triathlon training.

Today I've been thinking a lot about going back to swimming and everything. And I made a decision.

As soon as I come back to Barcelona I am going to start to train as for triathlons. I want to move next to the sea so I can go swim in open waters. I am also planning on going back to running long distance, I wanted to take part in a half-marathon this year, but I can't train in here, I've tried, but the pollution is not helping me at all. And then I'll ride hard on my bike, I need to get full mobility of my left wrist and I am planning to ride my bike from Barcelona to my parent's every time I want to visit them.

I feel my body itching for exercise as it has never done, I even feel anxious for it. I might try again to go for a run in here, even if I don't have time for it and my lungs are going to try to kill me.

Acapulco or a weekend at the beach

This weekend (well, these last three days) I've been in Acapulco. It all started last week when a friend from the lab told me that she was going for a swimming competition, and asked me if I wanted to go. Of course, I had to say yes.

We left early from the lab on Friday and went to eat "Pozole" which is like a soup made with corn and pork meat. It was delicious, although a bit too warm for the weather we have right now. After that we went to meet with some friends from the girl and headed to Acapulco. The traffic was terrible and it took us really long, but it was fun, we sang songs by The Beatles. At night, around 10 pm, we finally arrived to Acapulco, we were supposed to stay at an apartment but there was space in the hotel and we stayed there.

On Saturday we spent the WHOLE day at the beach, it was really warm, but very nice. As usual in here, people would pass by every two seconds trying to sell you stuff. Surprisingly, I didn't get a sunburn, even if all I did was lie on the sand and go inside the water. We also walked around and we saw a little dead sea tortoise, it was sad because it was so small. After a while on the beach we went to the hotel swimming pool and then for dinner, before 7pm. Because the competition was early the following day, we went to sleep early.

During the night I woke up because I felt like a small earthquake, everyone tells me that they didn't feel anything, but I'm sure there was a small one. Sunday was completely crazy. Competition during the morning, which took place on the same day and same hour as a running competition (lack of planning? I guess so), so it took us half an hour to go from where the swimming competition started back to the hotel. I finally did it and went to the finishing line to see how my friends arrived. It was horribly warm, but it was exciting to see how the competitors would arrive and run up to the line, it was inspiring. In fact they have already convinced me to take part in the competition next year. We stayed in the beach for a while after they arrived and, then, we went for lunch in another part of the city. It was delicious, we had "sopes" and fish (which was spicy but I could tolerate) and also fried banana. After lunch I was really sleepy so I laid on a hammock, however I could not sleep, because apparently my brain is stupid, or something. We stayed in that place until after the sunset and then we went to the house we had to go from the start, it was a small house that had a pool, where we immediately headed to. We spent most of the evening drinking beers next and inside the pool, talking and dancing salsa. In the pool. Like I've never danced salsa and the first time I do is inside a pool. It was fun.

Unfortunately, today we had to go back to real life, we woke up, we had breakfast and then we headed back to the city. With the car promptly "breaking down" just outside Acapulco, meaning that we needed to go back and fix it. Still it took us less time to go back, as we were back in Mexico City in 3 hours and a half.


I have to confess that it has been a long time since I've had so much fun at a trip, everything was just perfect, and I was so happy. I don't think I've been this happy in ages, mainly because I'm always over-thinking, and this time I just let me go and relax.

As you might know there were some hurricanes in Acapulco a couple of months ago, I have to say that I was expecting to find everything down. The touristic part was completely ok, and only when we went to other parts of the city you could see the aftermath of it, however they are fixing it pretty fast.

At the midpoint

Today I was checking how many days have I been on the other side of the Atlantic for administrative reasons, and, as it happens, today marks the midpoint in all this. So, I can, kind of, evaluate all this.


The Good:
-I'm learning a lot, and doing experiments I never have time to do in Barcelona, like immunofluorescence. (I have a hate-love relationship with immunofluorescence. I love it because it looks really nice, but I hate it because it takes LOTS of time, both to make it and to look at it)
-My stomach seems to be resistant to the "bugs" they have in here (at least for now).
-The people is super friendly, even with someone like me who is terrible at making friends (well maybe not so much, but a bit).
-The weather is mild. A bit too mild maybe, I kinda want to be cold at some point that is not 10 minutes after leaving home.
-There are lots of green areas. Even if they are concentrated, you can find real forests inside the city.
-Most of the things are insanely cheap. Like around 0.20 € to ride the bus for 5km!
-I still don't have a Mexican accent (I know it is not an ugly accent, but I kinda like mine), I know it because people in my lab still make fun of how I say certain things.

The Bad:
-I don't think I'll have enough time to do all the experiments I wanted to do.
-And I won't have enough time to visit everything I am supposed to visit.
-I thought I would be able to relax and forget about the work in Barcelona, but I'm clearly a workaholic (or something).
-Pollution, it's really bad, if you add the altitude to it, it makes impossible for me to go for a run because I get tired only by walking.
-The smells. People cooks on the street, like everywhere, and you have to pass by smelling some of the terrible things people has for breakfast (gross, gross things).
-The dirt. The places where people cooks on the street tend to be really really dirty, and wet, so you have to beware if you're wearing sandals because you might end up with completely black feet.
-Bumpy sidewalks. Apparently the roots of the trees grow too much and start breaking the sidewalks, but sometimes there aren't trees around and the sidewalks are bumpy too.
-Spicy food. I thought I would get used to it, but there's NO way, and less if I cook my own food.

There's still time to change some of this opinions, so don't miss out the post I'll write as soon as I go back to Barcelona!

Places I want to go, things I want to do

I wasn't planning in writing a post today (seriously I wasn't, and more taking into account that I don't know what happened today but there was an enormous amount of traffic on my blog, with enormous I mean like more than 160 people in less than 2 hours, I know it's not much, but I used to have 100 readers per MONTH, so it's kind of a big deal), BUT there is something I have been thinking about a lot lately, so I decided to write a post about it (it's going to be a list (yay!)).

This is about places I want to go and things I want to do in them. Ready? Go!

1. I want to go to Iceland. And cycle the whole island.
2. I want to go to Ireland (I wanted to cycle it too, but since I've already said it...). And find a stone house facing the sea, where I can write a whole book from scratch.
3. I want to go to Japan (again). And visit Kyoto, and go back to Miyagima island and trek around the mountain, and go to the north.
4. I want to go somewhere rainy and gloomy. I don't care where but I just want to go.
5. I want to go to Montréal in winter. And also in summer. And basically go there as many times as I can because I love this city.
6. I want to go back to Prague. With my camera.
7. I want to live in Paris. And have a bohemian life like Hemingway.
8. I want to go to Northern Spain again. And drive the coast roads with my car.
9. I want to go to England. To the wild coasts and the historic castles.
10. I want to go to the forests in Central Europe. And feel the smell of them and walk around, and escape the heat of summer under its trees.
11. I want to go to Krakow, Tallinn, Vilnius, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Bratislava, Ljubljana, Oslo, Stockholm, Bergen, Zagreb, Bruges. I want to go to every great city in Europe.
12. I want to cruise the Aegean sea. In a small sail boat.
13. I want to go to the Sahara desert. And see the sunrise and the sunset.
14. I want to go to California (again, but not for work). And have my feet in the sand and see the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.
15. I want to go to Argentina. And see the wide plains of Patagonia.
16. I want to drive along the coast in Catalunya. And admire the beauty that we have.
17. I want to go to some high mountains. In Spring, when the snow is melting and everything comes back to life again (and there is lots of mud, but I wouldn't mind).

Basically I want to take my camera, take a bag and go wherever I want to go.

The National Anthropology Museum and the Forest of Chapultepec

After spending most of yesterday writing (with a visit to the lab to take care of my cells, and with take care I mean fixing them (if you work in a lab you know what I mean)), my roommate today drove me up to Reforma Street, so I could go to the National Anthropology Museum.

Reforma Street is a completely different part of the city, the sidewalks are incredibly wide, and everything is clean, there are high buildings, it kinda looked like Europe. There were also some bikes you could rent to go from one place to the other. Funny thing is that those bikes were the exact same model that you find in Barcelona (the dreaded Bicing). So I walked down the street to the museum. The walk includes an enormous park known as the Forest of Chapultepec (which will be referred as the Forest from now on, because writing Chapultepec is way too difficult). It was really really nice, because it was sunny (obviously) and even a bit warm (again), I mean it's December already and I had to go around wearing a tank top during several moments of the day. 

The museum was crowded, with tourist and with kids doing homework (well, rather with parents doing the kids' homework). In the museum there are like two different parts, one shows all the old cultures that existed before the Spanish Conquest, and the other shows the remaining indigenous cultures. The part with the old cultures is awesome, they have several art forms, either originals or reproductions, including some really big stone pieces. Seeing those I wondered how could they work such rock blocks, although some of them were made out of volcanic rock which weights much less. Another thing that struck me, was that some statuettes, specially the ones from the oldest period, had a striking resemblance to the first art in some other parts of the world (ok, in Europe), they even had cave paintings! So, I just think that, it is curious how, regardless of where they are, human kind ends up starting to express art in a similar manner. I also wondered what would have happened if we, Europeans, hadn't come here to mess with what they had. How would the civilization had evolved? How would the art had evolved? Because one thing I noticed is that they were really good at making animal sculptures, but there weren't too many real human statues, some were anthropomorphic, yes, but not really human. 

After the museum I had to go take the metro so I decided to cross the Forest and see a bit of it. There were some places that were completely crowded (as most of the things in this city), but I found a really quiet path, were I could breathe the smell of earth and trees, I had missed that more than I'd like to admit and it was nice, however the sun was setting and I had to go back home. 

The metro was an experience on its own. As usual there is people selling stuff, from sweets to music, to different kind of house supplies. There were even two boys who were asking for charity while doing a spectacle that involved one of them breaking glass with different parts of his body. If you have never been on the metro in Mexico City you can't imagine how it is like, there is people selling stuff every two minutes, but it's part of the adventure. 

November, my crazy writing month.

I've posted lots of shorts stories on this blog, I always considered them my speciality, and I never thought I could go further than that. When I signed up for NaNoWriMo this year (I've talked about on other posts, but I'm too tired to link them here now), I was afraid I would leave it unfinished, or that my novel would be much shorter than the 50,000 words that was proposed as a goal. I won't say it was easy, but there was something that made me write more and more every day. And the story itself took paths that I would have never imagined when my brain first thought of it. To sum up, here is what this month has looked like for me:

These are the stats as for today, once I have finally finished my book. After I wrote the last words I felt terribly empty. I have had this story living with me for so long, not only during this month, but during ages, that having it finish, makes me feel as if something had been pulled out from me. I guess that the only way to fill this void will be starting the next crazy story my brain has already come up with. In the meantime, I need to edit this one, to make it fully readable.