North America,  Mexico,  Travel

made some new friends

September 11, 2022 /

I met some interesting new people this week. During the Spanish class, I met a couple from Chicago. Both are professors of art at the Art Institute of Chicago. They are now on paid academic leave for half a year. They came here seven years ago to do research and work with local Aboriginal artists. In 1994, during the local Zapatista National Liberation Army uprising movement, this man also participated here. His father was Mexican, but he grew up in the United States. This woman was born in Korea and grew up in the United States. She can speak basic Spanish because she also works with many Spanish-speaking immigrants in the United States to fight for their rights. One of the things I admire most about them is that they also brought their 7-year-old daughter, and let their daughter go to the local school from 8:00 to 2:00 every day, listening to them say that their daughter learns Spanish faster than them, Ha ha.

In addition to them, I also met an uncle from Sydney, Australia at the Spanish language school. After class on Friday, I went to a sushi restaurant with him to eat sushi and chat. His work is super interesting. He is responsible for the event organization and planning of the Olympic torch relay project. He has participated in the Sydney, Atlanta, Rio, and Tokyo Olympics before, as well as the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Because of his work, he will live in the city where the Olympic Games are held for a year or two each time. In addition to the Olympics, he will go to Qatar next week to take charge of the organization and planning of the World Cup. His girlfriend is Mexican, but the two met while working in the UK, and both travel regularly to organise events for work. But this year, they decided to buy a piece of land in San Cristóbal, designed and built a small house that is environmentally friendly and energy-saving, intending to have a settled land. Although the sushi in this sushi restaurant is average, at least the proprietress and chef are serious Japanese. The proprietress is from Tokyo. She has been in the United States for more than ten years and Central America for 6 years. Now it is rare to open her own sushi restaurant here.

A few days ago, I met a local person on the sofa guest software. This little guy is from Puebla, but he moved here with his parents for eight or nine years. He has been running his own interior design company for 7 years and was previously a design engineer at Volkswagen. His parents also have their own furniture company. He also loves traveling. He lived in Italy for half a year before. His girlfriend is Peruvian and will move in next month. When walking with him on the street, I often see aboriginal people begging or selling handicrafts. It is different from the view that the aboriginal people are poor and difficult to live. This little brother told me that he sometimes works because of his work. The reason is to go to some aboriginal homes for interior design and decoration. Some of their houses are huge and the cars they drive are also high-end cars. They are not poor at all on the surface, they are their traditional way of life. We went to the most famous tapa shop here, similar to the tapa shop in Spain, free tapa with purchase of wine, and unlimited popcorn, no wonder it was full every time we passed by.

When I went to the Aboriginal steam sauna ceremony Temazcal last weekend, I met a couple, an American man and a local woman. The contact information was exchanged at the time but there was no contact. The girl asked me yesterday if I was free to meet up this Saturday, because her fiancé went to the ceremony again. I met her in the city center, she just had lunch at 4:00 in the afternoon, and I wasn't hungry, so we hit the road. It's Mexican Independence Day next week, so it's very festive here, with some celebratory singing and dancing everywhere. The little girl had worked in the hotel tourism industry near Cancun for a few years before, where she met her current fiancé. The two spent most of last year living in Peru and just returned three months ago. Now she takes hand-woven lessons every day and plans to start her own small business. 

It’s been two weeks since I came here, and the landlord’s son’s restaurant at the door has never been seen running. There were a few times when it was noisy outside, and it felt like a lot of people came, but every time it was actually a bunch of his friends who came to have a party. He is also more sensible. When people come to a party, he will greet me in advance, saying that he hopes not to disturb me.

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