JASON GOES TO MEXICO 2008

Then I Was Back Home

2008-10-04T17:07:00.003-05:00

Oh man. Before I knew it I was home in Chicago.

Actually, I wasn't home because I don't have my own place, but I came home to Miki and Kate's which is just about as good as it can get. The Greenbergs had dinner ready for me when I got there and it was great to see Sidione and Gisselle. I slept on the Greenberg couch for 2 weeks.

Culturally, I jumped right back into the scene, too. Most significantly, Jazz Fest took place on my first weekend back. I got to hear concerts by Sonny Rollins, Dave Douglas and Ornette Coleman, all free, in one weekend. Those are three of my very favorite jazz acts.

Plus two Cubs games in the first week of being back in town. Pretty good.

So there you have it. Now I'm living with Brad and Julie and saving up some money to get my own place. I hope I'll be able to have an apartment in November.

I'm back teaching at the Old Town School and Rogers Park Montessori. Everything is going great. I learned so much during my travels, about people and about life, and I've been able to bring a whole new energy to my classes.

It's hard to imagine that this is only my 3rd year teaching full-time. Can you imagine that I ever did anything different? I can't.

Well, thanks for reading! Drop me a line when you get a chance.

Buena suerte,
Jason

Fin de Mi Viaje

2008-10-04T16:29:00.005-05:00

Yeah, so this is it. The last couple days.

For my second trip into México D.F. I stayed with Stephan and his friend Florian. Stephan is in México D.F. studying business administration until Christmas.
The night I arrived we went to see the National Fútbol Team in Estadio Azteca, which is the fifth largest stadium in the world.

We had a great time at the game. México beat Honduras 2-1. Without all the commercial breaks and everything that you get in the states, it seemed like the game was over before we knew it. It was awesome to hear 112,000 people sing Cielito Lindo for the last five minutes or so of the game.
The next day Florian and I went to the National Museum of Anthropology, which tells the pre-Columbian history of México. The museum was huge and very impressive. We were there for about 3 hours and only saw about half of it.

That evening we found some dinner and headed off to the Torre Latinoamericana; one of the tallest buildings in the city. We spent some time up on the observatory. That is México D.F. in the background. See the bright lights on the right side, near my elbow? That's el zocalo de México D.F. - the center of the whole place. Wow.
It's strange. This is basically my last moment in México. I don't really know what to say about it. I didn't then either.

The very next morning I got up and headed out to the airport. It was time to get back home.

Barbacoa with Don Beto

2008-10-04T16:12:00.002-05:00

This was my favorite place to eat in Cuernavaca. It's called Barbacoa de Don Beto. Barbacoa is slow-cocked sheep. One of the cool things about eating in México is that a place like this only has one thing on the menu: barbacoa tacos. That's it. And they were great!

Don Beto was out there Monday through Saturday. I'm not sure what time he opened, but he was always closed by 2:00 in the afternoon. Many times I wasn't paying attention to the time and missed my chance for the day.
This is me and Don Beto right after my last meal in Cuernavaca. Just before this I played a few tunes on the banjo for everyone and they gave me my lunch gratis. It was really fun. Everyone was clapping and having a grand time. I'm sure a couple jokes were made at my expense, but Don Beto wasn't going to have any of it.

From here I got on the bus to México D.F. Adios Cuernavaca. Estuve muy triste.

The Restaurant with the Peacocks

2008-10-04T15:56:00.004-05:00

When my dad was in his late teens he lived near Mexico City with my grandparents and my aunt and uncle. My grandpa was working for Ford and he was there to help them open a factory.

When the family was there, they visited a restaurant that had a courtyard with live peacocks walking around near the dining tables.

I had heard about this restaurant many times growing up, and it turns out the restaurant is called Las Manañitas; the swankiest restaurant in Cuernavaca.

I met up with Merecedes, Karla and Pete for some drinks there. It was pretty dark by the time we got there, so the peacocks weren't really out too much. I did see one real quickly though.

It was a nice time. Very expensive, but worth it.

Algunas Personas in Cuernavaca

2008-10-04T14:12:00.005-05:00

I met so many people in Cuernavaca! The last few days I spent a lot of time trying to catch up with as many of them as possible. Here's a few pictures.

Toño

Eric ("El Gobernador")

Paola (mi maestra de lingua de jovenes)

Alejandro the building manager of the Starbucks shopping center.

EmilianoSocoro and her son Alejandro

Socoro and Alejandro lived next door to my house in Cuernavaca. Socoro runs a small bazaar out of the front of her house. You can buy DVDs, luggage, bedding, cloths, jewelry and many other things. Her and Alejandro where you there every day.

She was a very nice lady and helped me quite a bit with my español. She always said, "Cuidado, Jason. Cuidado." That means "be careful." She was always looking out for me. I miss seeing her in the mornings.

Mi Famalia en México

2008-10-04T13:46:00.004-05:00

Here's a picture of the family I lived with in Cuernavaca. I wish the picture wasn't so blurry!
That's Jorge on the left. He's the father and that's who I rented the room from. Jorge Jr. is next to him. He lives in the house, too. That's Margarita next. Margarita is Jorge's daughter (Jorge Jr.'s sister). Next is Nesi, Margarita's husband. And then last Margarita and Nesi's son, little Roberto! He is a very cool kid. We did A LOT of laughing together.

Margarita and Nesi have their own place closer to el centro, but Margarita and Roberto stayed at the house for about a month while Nesi was out of town on business. He's an archeoligist and was out on a dig. Isn't that awesome?

As a side note, I took this photo just hours before my big "sickness". I was so sick that I truly thought that if it was going to keep going, I'd rather be dead. Luckily I survived. The first meal I had when I was feeling better was KFC. That was the only time during the trip that I specifically set out to find "home cooking".

Volví

2008-10-04T13:42:00.002-05:00

Yeah, so I'm back. I hope you weren't worried.

Someone I have very little to do today, so it's time to finish up the postings about my adventures en México.

Meanwhile, it's good to be home and not teaching on Saturdays.

Here it goes. The dramatic conclusion of Jason Goes to Mexico 2008.

Música and The Grand México City

2008-08-26T15:46:00.014-05:00

“The heart of México beats en this space. The mariachis of the Garibaldi plaza welcome your visit. Here, all the towns of the world are part of the grand México City.”

I got up really early on the last Saturday of my trip and took the bus to México D.F. The DF stands for Federal District (districto federal en español). It’s the capital of México and one of the largest cities in the world.

Like I said, I took the bus into the city and then took the subway (which is very clean and only costs 2 pesos - that’s $.20!) into El Zocalo. I exited the subway at about 10:30 and it looked like this. Impressive, huh? But not as many people as I had been lead to believe. “That’s not so many people,” I thought.

Here’s a picture of that same spot about 3 hours later. It doesn’t do justice to just ho many people there were. It was like the crush walking through the corridors after a Cubs game. But instead of just one hallway, it was a whole huge city center. I can’t believe there were that many people!

I had a great time. Here’s a short video of all the music I caught when I was there. I didn’t get to go to the Ballet Folkloricó which was too bad, this is the Palacio de Belle Arts (Fine Arts Building) where they perform.

I also got to see a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Fresco, another beautiful and historical mural by Diego Rivera. The mural is a “typical day” in El Zocalo of Mexico City with very untypical characters - politicians, activists, Hernado Cortez, Frida Kahlo, Rivera himself and others.

I spent most of the day walking back and forth around the Centro neighborhood. Here’s another shot of the people in the street. It was street after street of this!

At about 5:00 I finally headed for the famed Plaza Garibaldi! An experience I’ll never forget. SO MANY MARIACHI’S. Plaza Garibaldi is the plaza where all the mariachi groups hang out, waiting to get hired. At first it was really similar to El Zocalo in Cuarenavaca. Everyone was just kind of standing around and once and and while a group would play.

But then, as night fell, the place began to burst with excitement and music. It got to the point where there where so many groups playing that you couldn’t even hear them any more.

Here’s a video compilation that of my experience in Plaza Garibaldi. It’s very shaky, I know. I just couldn’t hold still! I was just having too much fun. Amazing. There where mariachis everywhere!

My camera battery died at the end of that last clip to that’s all I could record. It’s too bad because I think that was the hottest group that I heard that night.

I walked back to El Zocalo at about 11:00 that night and sat under that flag pole right there (This is a picture of El Zocalo from earlier in the day). The people had dispersed again, but there was still a lot of bustling going on. It’s was a great feeling to sit there and contemplate my trip. I took the midnight bus back to Cuernavaca that night.

I woke up on Sunday morning knowing that I only had 3 days left in Cuernavaca and it was time to start collecting myself and saying my goodbyes. Estuve muy triste.

Malagueña - Jesús "Chucho" Peredo

2008-08-25T23:45:00.001-05:00

The very next night Chucho played a concert downtown at the univeristy. It was great. Here is a recording of him playing Magueña.

Here's the text from the program. While I understand that basic "concept" of what he was talking about, I wish I understood more of the specifics.

Mi Amiga Maria Estuvo Aquí.

2008-08-18T13:19:00.011-05:00

** Only a couple days left in México (and no more in Cuernavaca) and I must admit I'm feeling a little burnt out. I don't have quite the energy for this entry that I wish I had, but I want to get it down. So here I go. **

I had the sincere pleasure of hosting one of my closest friend, Maria McCullough for a few days this week! How about that?

Maria and her boyfriend, Yahvi, had been traveling all over México this sumer; playing music and visiting Yahvi's family. Last Lunes, Martes y Miercoles Maria came to visit me in Cuernavaca. Unfortunately, Yahvi wasn't feeling well so he stayed in México City with his mom (lucky!)

It was great to be in Cuernavaca with someone who knows what my life is like back in Chicago. Having her here changed my perspective a little bit regarding how different, or how similar, my life here is to my life in Chicago.

Maria had a friend in Cuernvaca, Chucho Peredo Flores, who is an incredible musician and scholar of Mexican music. Oddly enough, he worked on a CD called Dos Tradicíones, which I own and listen to all the time! Again, it's a very small world.

We played a ton of music when Maria was here. The first night was just hanging around at Chucho's beautiful music space. Maria and Chucho had a lot of catching up to do and Chucho and I got to know each other. I had some recordings of this evening, but I accidentally erased them! But here is a short video of Maria and Chucho playing.

The next day Maria and I went to the Zocalo and walked all around. We found the market where they sell the food and went to El Palacio de Cortes and saw the Diego Rivera mural. It was the second time I so it and I'm glad I did because the time before I was a little sick and I had a hard time appreciating the museum.

Then we went to Chucho's to play some music. His wife, Estela, runs a factory making tiles for mosaics and she is quite an accomplished artist. Chucho showed us all around their new house (which they designed) and the tile factory/workshop that is right next door. This tour was an unexpected treat. That's no rug. That's mosaic!

Then we had a gig at Starbucks! ¿Qué padre, no? Yeah, it was billed as Maria and I, but Chucho joined us on a couple tunes and Maria and Chucho played some stuff. It was great fun. Not too many of my friends and neighbors were able to make it on short notice, but some did which was awesome. I felt so proud to be able to share a bit more of my life in Chicago. Again, I had recorded the show, but I erased it. Dang!

The next day we went back to Chucho's to chat and play. We met up with a bunch more of their family and ate dinner and played a ton of music. I do have some recordings of that luckily. They all had pizza and they were very accomidating to my wheat intolerance. Also, I ate a steamed artichoke for the first time. At first I wasn't so sure, but the . . . sambroso.

I have a couple recordings of this that I'll post later.

Maria had to go the next day and it was a strange moment. She's been to México a bunch of times and has traveled all over. This is all still kind of new to me. It felt great that we were able to find each other here. It's strange to have part of my "real life" enter my life here. I guess . . . well, I don't know what I'm trying to say. It was strange. It was wonderful.

Friends - we're really making it happen, huh? ¡Qué chido!

Tocamos Cielito Lindo, Y'all

2008-08-14T01:55:00.006-05:00

One thing that I didn’t realize until I got here is that, while there are a ton of mariachis and singers hanging around in El Zocalo (the city center) they don’t really play much. Or I guess I should say, they don’t give it away for free. They wait for someone to hire them. (How they can sit there, with their instruments in their hands for that long and not play is beyond me.)

I was always so disappointed when I’d go downtown. There was musicians everywhere but no music! How strange.

Now, you know me and you know that I like to play. But I hardly ever play for money. But, I went down to el zocalo on Friday afternoon to try my hand at some busking. I’d never “busked” before, even in Chicago, but I decided that I need to give it a try. So I did it. I sat right down in the center of the whole scene, put my Tigers hat out, and started to play. I got a pretty good crowd for Oh Susanna and made my first 7 pesos (the most money I’d made in 7 weeks). I was on my way!

Then, of coarse, a gringo hired a group of mariachis to play about 100 ft from me! I had been in Cuernavaca for seven weeks and not once did I hear a mariachi group actually play. And I they day I try to break out . . . “Guadalajara, Guadalajara . . . “

The banjo is loud, but it’s not that loud. So me my friend Ryan, who had come to lend his moral support, packed up and we moved to a different part of el zocalo. I was feeling fairly defeated.

We were standing by a fountain, just chatting when a trumpet playing mariachi, Mario, came up to me and asked me about the banjo. We started talking and a couple others came over. Then a few more.

Before long I had a pretty good crowd around me; all mariachis.

Now, like I said, the mariachis don’t play until they’re hired. And here I am showing up, banjo in hand, ready to play for nothing. So I played a little bit. I think I played Fish on a Hook and Angeline the Baker.

Ryan noticed the mariachies give each other a hard time if they play without being hired, so the whole situation was a little weird. I could tell they were dying to play, but they were trying not to.

Finally, Santiago, who plays the vihuela, started to sing; just a little bit, kind of under his breath. But we sang and played Cielito Lindo and by the end a bunch of others had joined. It was hilarious because they where all singing so quietly and kind of looking around like they didn’t want to be noticed.

Eventually a few of them warmed up. Manuel, who I was told plays everything and is considered the best musician in the group, didn’t seem to mind and played for real. We played Oh Susanna (of coarse), Will the Circle Be Unbroken, and This Land is Your Land. They helped me sing Volver, Volver (which I’m working pretty hard on) and they showed me a couple other songs.

My favorite moment was when one of the singers busted into Guantanamera. Everyone sang and they really sang it, too! Oh man. I just kept thinking about Pete Seeger and wishing I could have recorded it and sent it to him. I think he would be so proud.

P.S.
My friend Ryan (who took the photos that I'm in) has a blog posting about this event, too. Ryan became a very good friend during this trip. Check out his blog. It's hilarious and very interesting.

African Drumming at Ludovica

2008-08-11T11:05:00.002-05:00

My friend Toño, from Starbucks, took me to an African drumming class. It was really interesting.

You know, I teach drumming at Rogers Park and really, I haven’t studied drumming, only teaching. So a lot of times I’m just king of winging it as I figure out how to teach drumming as I’m learning myself.

But after seeing this class, I was pretty happy that my class is fairly similar. It’s not nearly as complex, but the structure is about the same.

There where seven drummers; four playing djembe (including the teacher) and three playing dun-duns.

Here’s a recording of the class. This is the rhythm that they spent the most time on. I wish I knew what it was called. They worked really hard on it. The solo part is the teacher but at roughly 2:10 Toño takes the solo part.

After I had a dinner of al pastor, cervezas and good conversation with Toño and his wife.AA

Gorditas en Bernal

2008-08-10T23:50:00.007-05:00

Saturday was devoted to Peña de Bernal, the second largest monolith in THE WORLD. Check this out! Pretty impressive rock, huh?

We kind of screwed up our schedule. Well, we didn’t screw it up, we just could have paid better attention.

The day started with a Trumpet Showcase at space where the band rehearses. Eight trumpets blasting away. It was pretty cool.

Then we made our way back to Sandy’s to pick up Friend (Nicole) and headed to Bernal, which is a town with a beautiful rock formation, I quess you would call it.

We got to the bus station a little late so we had to wait around, and then the bus took longer than we though so we only got to spend 90 minutes or so in Bernal. That was too bad because it took over an hour to get there.

The center of the town is a little tourist village at the base of the rock. She streets curve all around and you never know what's around the next corner. Probably another winding road.

Earlier that day I had asked one of Sandy’s students “What do you do when you go to Bernal?”

She said, “Eat.”

I asked, “Eat what?”

She said, “Gorditas.”

So that’s what we did. Gorditas are my new favorite food. They’re pockets of maza, stuffed with cheese, beans or meat and then fried.

Anyway, we ate some great Gorditas and then had to head back to Querétaro. ¡Sambroso!

----

Someday I’m going to go back and climb all the way to the top of that rock. Then I’ll play, “My Home’s Across the Smokey Mountains”.

On the Town in the Land of Mexican Independence

2008-08-10T23:03:00.016-05:00

Querétaro is a beautiful, charming city. This is a statue of Josefa Ortiz de Domíngo, who is one of the heros of the Mexican War for Independence. The initial planning for the war happened in Querétaro. Querétaro is the capital of the state of Querétaro. I arrived in on Thursday and checked out the band and caught up with Sandy’s family.

Thursday was “tourist day”. Sandy and her daughter, Nicole, took me on quite a tour. I was kind of tired of taking pictures so I gave my camera to Nicole and she took over for me. All these pictures are by Nicole, unless she’s in them. Then I took it.

We went everywhere. Went to a huge church and saw some statues of important people from the Mexican Revolution.

We saw the aqueduct (in the background) and checked out the beautiful view from the top of the city.

We walked up an down a lot of streets, eating tacos and checking everything out.

Eventually we had to sit down for a little bit.

We went to a great candy shop and bought a ton of dulces. Yum.

We went through the downtown section with all the artists selling jewelry. They had a cool “Frog Walk” which I think is the same idea as the Chicago Cows. The green one was my favorite.

We had to stop by Sandy’s office. While Sandy was taking care of some business we took we took portraits on the terrace. Nicole likes Americas Next Top Model, too!

Check out this flame statue. I’m guessing it’s my the same artist as the one in Chicago.

The afternoon ended with . . . more sweets! This is at an chain of coffee shops called “Italian Coffee”. It’s pretty good coffee.

I don’t have any pictures of it, but the day ended with some and a couple cervezas (for Sandy, her Mom and I only) and we played a couple games of Dora the Explorer themed Memory.

That’s when Nicole told me that I was her best friend. I was really touched by that. She is one sweet kid.

Boy, by the end of the day I was REALLY wore out. Nicole is a great walker. I was very impressed.

Festivo: Visiting Sandy Kessler

2008-08-10T09:44:00.005-05:00

First a little background on Sandy Kessler.

This is Sandy. I hadn’t seen her in, at least, 10 years before I visited with her and her family in Querétaro. We went to high school together. She was a year ahead of me. She was First Chair Trombone and Drum Major of marching band for 2 years. Then she went on to great success as Drum Major at Western Michigan University. That’s where we lost touch.

Now, on with the story. You may know that it took me a while to sign up on Facebook, but I did it, finally, in preparation for this trip. Within an hour of signing up Sandy found me!

I said, “Guess what! I’m heading to México for two months.”

She said, “Guess what! I live in México.”

I couldn’t believe it.

She’s been here for 8 years. She’s the director of a juvinal orchestra in Querétaro, which is the capital of the state of Querétaro. Here’s a picture and here’s a short video of Sandy conducting the intermediate ensemble.

If you were in middle school band with Sandy or I you might recognize that piece. It’s Festivo! Hearing it was just one of may great moments of this trip. I'm sorry I missed recording those trumpets blast it out at the beginning! Memories of Novi Middle School flew past in a flurry of eighth notes.

It was so awesome to see and hear Sandy in action. I can tell by the stories she tells, the success she’s had, and the way the parents and students talk to her that she has a great amount of respect. That couldn’t have been easy to come by. I was quite honored to be her guest at these rehearsals and to be able to say, en español, “I knew her when . . .”

More on my trip to Querétaro and my new amiga Nicole in the following posts.

P.S.
Sandy is on Facebook. I highly suggest you look her up.

¿Qué es eso?

2008-08-04T22:22:00.005-05:00

This is Jesus. He calls himself Jessie en inglés. Tiene sies años. (He's six-years-old.) We met on the five hour bus ride from Cuernavaca to Querétaro.

Jesus and his mom where sitting in the seats in front of me. No one was next to me. I must have "I'm good with kids," written across my forehead in Spanish as well as English. We weren't on the bus for 10 minutes before Jesus had found his way to the seat next to me.

We had a great time on the bus, and I was quite happy for some friendly company. He didn't stop talking, in Spanish, THE WHOLE TRIP. He didn't seem to mind that I didn't understand much of anything, although once and a while he did mutter "Ay, ay, ay," under his breath. We were able to share our favorite animals, our favorite movies and our favorite foods. His favorite food is mango. I just happened to have some mango with me. We're sharing it in that picture. That's why we're so happy.

I also taught him play Crazy Eights or Ochos Loco en español. That was pretty cool. I highly recommend trying to teach a card game with minimal language skills. Other than that we watched the cartoon Open Season and drew pictures of all kinds of stuff. We also played the game ¿"Qué es eso"? ("What is that?"), in Spanish. I was very bad at that.

The bus ride back on Sunday was much less enjoyable. The bus was jam packed, I was in the aisle seat, I was 2 rows from the bathroom and they showed a very depressing movie about governmental spying in East Germany. I was so happy to be "home".

A Haircut in Tlaquiltenango

2008-08-03T20:21:00.008-05:00

So, like I said, I met Mercedes and Karla at the Jazzmientos show and we got to know each other at the Alejandro Flores show at El Manojo the next night.

On Tuesday of last week I took the bus out to their hometown of Tlaquiltenango, which is about an hour outside of Cuernavaca. It was a really nice little pueblo; much smaller than Cuernavaca, but their was still a lot of action. I can't believe it didn't get more pictures of it.

Yeah, so Karla owns a salon and she agreed to cut my hair. I said I wanted to look more Mexican, but she said my hair was too thin. Que lastima.

Next we went on quite an adventure. Honestly I have no idea what happened the whole rest of the day. We started getting on busses and taking taxis. They are both photographers and there was a bunch of talk about "taking my picture" but I was never reall ys sure why until much later. One problem with not understanding the language is that everyone makes plans, but they don't tell me what they are. They just say "Vamanos" and I follow them wherever they're going.

Tlaquiltenango is way out in the country and it was really great to get out of the city. We went and picked up a guitar from their friend Pete (who plays heavy metal) and then Pete came with us to an Emilio Zapata museum where they the clothes he was killed in and his sombraro. It was very interesting, but honestly, I can't be around that many guns anymore. It makes me sad.

But I cheered up a great deal when Karla and I had a guitar lesson using no English, other tan the words to Pay Me My Money Down. I can't tell you how fulfilled I am when I teach someone who doesn't know how to play the guitar, how to play Pay Me My Money Down. My español gets a work out and so does my teaching.

From there we went god knows where and found a festival that the city was hosting called Feria Zacatepec 2008. It celebrates St. Santiago. It was the craziest fair I'd ever been too. There where rides and games and a ton of booths selling bootleg DVDs and crafts and toys and all kinds of stuff, and a huge bandshell. The band that night was playing "banda" which isn't any of our favorites, so we didn't stay there too long. There was music blaring from every corner of the fair, so it was impossible to hear anything anyone was saying, let alone for me to understand a thing.

We found a relatively quite tent to have some cervezas. The beer in Mexico comes sencillo (simple) or prepared. There are several different preparations. I like mine with salt and lime (límon en español), but Pete and Karla drank their's with what looked to me to be about half a bottle of chili power. I like chili, don't get me wrong, but que es muchísimo.

We left the fair after a couple of giant cervezas and headed off to another bar. Again, more taxi's and buses and a ton of walking. All I did was follow along and try to keep up. Eventually we found that the bar we were looking for was closed so we bought some beers and headed off to find some tacos. This is my last picture of the night and I think it summarizes it beautifully.

What a Great Day - Taxco

2008-08-02T10:35:00.010-05:00

Sunday, July 27, will go down as one of my favorite days (as I'm sure so many will) of my 2008 Trip to Mexico.

Stephan and I went to Taxco, which is famous as a silver mining town and shopping mecca. Now, if you know me you know that "shopping" isn't my favorite thing in the world, but we had such a great time just kicking around that it really didn't matter.

The day started off by us missing our first bus to Taxco so we walked down to El Zocalo and had some coffee (that picture is the view from the coffee shop) and kicked around the Jardin Borda, a for awhile. Jardin Borda is a beautiful gardn with fountains and very old trees; just the kind of place I would have hated going as a kid. We fed the duck, checked out some really tall trees and walked back to the bus station to make our way to Taxco.

It was a great trip out into the country. We were lucky enough to have the very front seats. Here's a view out of the bus window.

Taxco is all about buying and selling silver. We didn't go into many shops but we did see this beautiful church. We also hunted down a restaurant called Restaurante Tia Calla. I had read in a guide book that the Polzone at Tia Calla was especially good. Polzone is a very common corn soup from Mexico. I had exactly what the guide book recommended; a bowl of Polzone and a shot of Mezcal. While I wouldn't go all the way to Taxco just for polzone, it was fun to find our way through the streets and the food was very good.

We messed up our travel plans for a second time, so we had only 3 hours or so in Taxco which turned out to be fine. We stopped by a big silver market. Stephan bought a necklace for his girl and I bought a simple bracelet for myself. We caught the bus and headed back to Cuernavaca.

We got back at about 7:00 and nothing to do. So we made our way back to El Zocalo and found a hole in the wall bar to have some cervezas. It was time for some dinner and we made our way north to La Gringa for some tacos al pastor. La Gringa is infamous for it's al pastor, which is a spicy pork that is cooked on a spicket skewer and garnished with pineapple.

That was just the same as the rest of the day; nothing so special, but it was great to be there with a good friend, eating great food and not having a care in the world.

It was just a great day.

Mas Amigos y Música at El Manojo

2008-08-02T10:01:00.004-05:00

Last Friday I met some friends out at the same bar, El Manojo. We had another great time, although it wasn't the grand fiesta of the week before. I can't remember the name of the band but the leader of the group was Alejandro Flores of Cafe Tacuba.

The show was good, but my favorite part was that I had so many friends there. It was great to hang out with Stephan, Ryan and even Marile, one of the conversation teachers at Uninter. There was a couple other people I knew and then, quite to my surprise Mercedes and Karla, the two young ladies I met at Jazzmientos showed up!

We hung out quite late into the night, having beers and talking. Karla is a huge music fan so we traded "Recommended Artist" after recommended artist. Turns out she loves heavy metal and prog rock, especially Joe Satriani. What a world! Mercedes is an English teacher for niños. They live just an hour away from Cuernavaca in a pueblo called Tlaquiltenango.

Karla owns a hair salon in Tlaquiltenango, and I needed a hair cut. We we made rough plans for me to visit Tlaquiltenango later in the week and they'd show me around town. I'd give Karla a guitar lesson and she'd give me a hair cut.

Que padre.

. . . from the past

2008-07-31T07:09:00.002-05:00

I'm off to Queretaro, Queretaro to visit Sandy Kessler of all people. Can you dig that?

Chicago Skronk at La Casona (Jazzmientos)

2008-07-30T19:39:00.006-05:00

This was AWESOME.

My neighbors Graciella and Luis invited me to an event called Jazzmientos. It was held at the beautiful La Casona which is an art space created my the American artist John Spencer. This picture is from an inner courtyard. The concert space, which is unusual to say the least, was at the top of these stairs.

It was an evening of jazz in celebration of the 7th aniversary of 106.1 FM, an alternative radio station here in Cuernavaca. I was sure I would like it, but I had no idea what I was in for - Chicago style skronk!

This is a short video of Claude Lawrence, who, oddly enough, resides in Chicago.

This is a short video of Claude Lawrence playing with Francisco Mora Catlett, who played with another Chicagoian, SUN RA.

I felt like my Mexico experience went to a new level with this event. The space was incredible and the audience "felt" like people like me.

I even met two new friends who would play a much larger role during my travels: Mercedes and Karla. We didn't really talk much, but they were very nice and very pretty and - pretty girls from Mexico who are into skronky jazz - well, that's the winning combination! I invited them out to El Manojo the next night and then went home with Graciella and Luis. But that was only the first half of the evening.

. . . to be continued.

Karaoke Mexicano

2008-07-30T19:10:00.003-05:00

This is what I did after Jazzmientos. This post will be a lot more interesteing and make more sense when you see the picture that I don't have yet.

Last Thursdays the crew at the local Starbucks, where I spend a great deal of my time, invited me to a karaoke party. It was one of those situations that I find myself in regularily where I understand the basics of a conversation, but I don't get the details.

What I thought was going to happen
I thought that a few of us were going to go to one of the guys' houses to make some music. A bunch of the crew are drummers and we had been talking about getting together to make music. They told me be there at 11:00 because that's when they closed.

What really happened
I showed up, banjo in hand, ready to make music. We were waiting for the whole rest of the crew. That's about 10 people total. Then we drove, not to far away, to a house that I later learned was not owned by one of the baristas, but by a couple who are frequent coffee drinkers, also. We weren't there to make music, we were there because the couple was throwing a kareoke party for the Starbucks crew.

So we had a karaoke party. Now it was a little strange for these reasons.

I don't work at Starbucks.
I speak Spanish like a 4-year-old.
I don't know ANY contemporary Mexican pop tunes.

But, I did what I could and we had a great time. My first song was Suspicious Minds. Later the whole crew sang Cielito Lindo with me, which I will remember as a very special moment of my trip here.

Towards the end of the night the drums were brought out and we did get down to some instrumental music. Banjo and djembe just jammin' away. And I sang Lazy John.

Another memorable night.

Yes, I am still here

2008-07-30T18:54:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone,
It's been a very busy week. Sorry I haven't keep this up to date but I hope to get back on track.
Here's a list of "events" that I hope to cover. I'm going to make a seperate post for each one so I can manage this better and so you don't have to read one LONG post. You can read one or two and come back for the others later.

Events of the past week:

Karaoke with the Startbucks crew
Jazzmientos - Chicago style skronk in Cuernavaca
More music and muchas amigas at El Manojo
The silver markets and Polzone in Taxco
A haircut in Tlaquiltenango

Here it goes!

An Evening of Music at El Manojo with La Zafra

2008-07-21T22:42:00.006-05:00

Here is a little write up I did today about a great night my friends and I had on Sabado, 19 de Julio. I wrote it in English first and then translated it to Spanish. I did pretty good! My maestra mejor, Margarita, helped me correct a few things here and there.

What a night this was. Well, I'll let you read this. I posted it first in Spanish and then in English.

Pictures courtesy of Ryan Leibling.

En español

Tuvimos a buen tiempo antenoche. Yo y mis amigos Sheleice, Heidi y Stehpan, conocimos a Ryan en un bar que se llama El Manojo. Fuimos escucar un grupo de Veracruz que se llama La Zafra.

No había mas personas en el bar y la bailarina de el grupo, Miroslava, vío que tenía interés especial en la musica. Ella me llamo a bailar pero estuve muy nervioso. Finalmente bailé con ella y todo la gente lanzó vítores. Ella es bailarina bonita.

En el descanso conoci a los musicos. Luego esta noche, tocaban cuando el principal de el grupo, Lusi Manuel, me tocó una jarana y tocé un cancion con el grupo. ¡Esta es la razón de que vine a México!

In English

We had a great time two nights ago. Me and my friends, Sheleice, Heidi, and Stephan met Ryan at a bar called El Manojo. We went to hear a band from Veracruz called La Zafra.

There weren’t many people in the bar and the dancer of the group, Miroslava, noticed right away that I was especially interested in the music. She was calling to me to dance with her but I was too nervous. Eventually I did dance and the audience cheered. She is a beautiful dancer.

At the break I met all the musicians. Later that night, while the band was playing, the leader of the group, Luis Manual, handed me a Jarana and I played a song with them. That is why I came to México!

Tepoztlán - an Indiana Jones Moment

2008-07-21T00:21:00.001-05:00

This is me almost to the top of the Tepozteco Mountain where I got to see the remains of Tepoztlán, a temple built in the Aztec era, sometime between 1150 and 1350 AD. I don't want to get into the whole history of the place, but I can tell you that it is quite impressive. Boy, when humans get their minds to something, they can make it happen.

(Here's a few more pictures. More and higher quality pictures soon available on my web site.)

Speaking of making it happen, we made it all the way to the top. This is a picture of me and my German amigo Stephan right after we got off the bus in the town of Tepoztlán. See that blue awning at Stephan's right ear. If you start there and run your mouse straight up to the top of the mountain, you can kind of make out the temple. We climb from the point we're standing at all the way up to the temple.

Here's Stephan and Sheleice (from Arizona) on their way. The path is all stones. Sometimes it's jagged. Sometimes it's narrow. Sometimes it's slippery. Sometimes it's all three. There's maybe a hunderd yards of stairs right at the beginning, but from that point on it's all stone. And it's all up. Until we were climbing down. Then it's all down.

The view was like this all the way up. Jaw dropping natural beauty every ten feet or so.

That's the temple in the background.

A view from the top of the temple.

Test me on what exactly?

2008-07-20T23:15:00.000-05:00

I want to share an interesting moment of insight from my final Español Gramática class for the summer.

I took another test on Friday. I’m not taking these español classes for college credit, so I don’t have to take the tests, but I thought that it would be interesting to see how far I had come over the three weeks. Before I tell you the results; a little background on the morning that had preceded the test.

I was feeling pretty run down on Friday morning and, instead of going to Unitnter, I skipped my first hour, bought a newspaper, and sat down at Starbucks. I was very proud of how well I did reading the paper, including almost total comprehension of an article about Obama’s speech regarding American students learning a second language. While there, I also spent a great deal of time speaking, en español, with my amiga Pao, who a Starbucks barista. We had a great conversation and I left for school very excited about learning Spanish!

Well, four hours later I took the test and, for the second week in a row, I didn’t do very well. Preteríto and imprefecto verb conjugation became an alphabet soup in my mind and I was only able to squeeze 53 words from my brain for my 100-word-essay. The test was done and I left the room to get some fresh air. There I was, on my last day of class, in the middle of México, feeling really, really, really bad about my prospects of learning Spanish.

Bad? About Spanish? But I was feeling so good! What happened?

----

I started thinking about my language classes in grade school. When I was in the 7th grade I was thrilled at the prospect of spending the year learning Spanish. But then I found that, despite my best efforts, the class was difficult. I addition, I was terrified by those headphones that allowed the teacher to ease drop on me as I was playing my part, along with the rest of the class, in a pre-recorded conversation. I got frustrated and as the class became more difficult I noticed that, even though I was studying and trying my best, I was not getting the “good grade” I was used to as an A student. By the time we got back from Christmas Break I had basically checked out, and after only one year I “quit” Spanish for the rest of my school career. Too bad, because I really wanted to learn Spanish.

----

Forward 18 years or so and here I am, in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Again, class is tough and it’s easy to get frustrated. But, I’ve been around the block a few times and I know a couple things that I wish I would have known during elementary and high school, when my entire life depended on good grades, rather than life experience.

First, I know that just because it’s me who doesn’t understand something, I’m not necessarily the one with the problem. I know there’s a big difference between leading a student in the educational process and simply reciting knowledge. Reciting knowledge lacks the ability to listen (which create dialog), and in addition it lacks an understanding of how the student is to put new knowledge into context in the “real world”.

Second, I know from experience that knowledge and language, be it Spanish, music, math, literature, or whatever, is nothing if it remains in the world of the classroom. Knowing how to conjugate 200 verbs in imperfect tense is not my goal. My goal is to have a more "well rounded" life (as my parents said when I was a kid) and be able to communicate with more of the world. If we can communicate, we can share our life experiences, and hopefully that brings something positive to the world.

If sharing life experience where the test, I’d receive straight A's very semester.

Thanks for reading. What do you think? Any similar experience in your life? Drop me a note.

Hope you’re doing well Chicago, Detroit and parts unknown. Let’s talk soon.

Hasta luego,
Jason

Niños Bailando Capoeira

2008-07-13T20:29:00.006-05:00

I went to the Zocolo (city center) last night looking for a group of dancers dancing Danzsón, but I didn't find them. That was disappointing, but look at what I did find!

This is Capoeira. It is a combination martial art, dance and music originating in Brazil. There was three student groups yesterday, one circle of men, one of women and one of kids! The kids were great! Check it out.

There's another short video on my website. Those girls are awesome. ¡Que padre! (en español = very cool!)

It was too difficult to get very close to the adults, but here's a short example of what they were doing.

Pretty cool, huh? I know there's Capoeira classes for adults around town, including at the Old Town School, but I'm not sure about classes for niños y jovenes (kids and young people). If you're a student and you're reading this and are interested, maybe your parents can help you find a place to learn Capoeira. Then you can teach me!

Twinkle - a universal language (plus a P.S.)

2008-07-11T19:18:00.006-05:00

This is Andre. His mom is one of the cooks at my favorite restaurante. Today, after lunch, I saw that he had a violin. I asked him about it and he told me that he had been playing for 2 months. He had a very strong sound for a beginner. He didn't know what to play porque he's just starting, but I played Twinkle and then he learned it by ear. It was great! He was playing it right out of the gate and we played it together a few times.

We're going to play again on Friday. Between Oscar on guitar, Andre on fiddle and me on banjo, we have the makings of a pretty good old time band.

Know a good bass player in Cuernavaca? Send him or her our way!

P.S.

This is my friend Grace. She's here for a few weeks with her son Patrick. I think they're from West Virginia, but I may be wrong. Drop me a line if I am.

The picture was taken at a little party that Unitner threw on the 4th of July. They put together an group of students (myself included) to sing the National Anthem. That was pretty cool but I got all subversive about it and had a group of students singing "This Land is Your Land" (the "real national anthem where I come from), but we got cut off when someone turned on a sound system with some other background music. That was too bad, but I understand that most people aren't us to having "the people" make the music, rather than simply being receivers.

This Land was Made for You and Me!

¡Hola Chicos!

2008-07-11T18:26:00.004-05:00

That's what Paquita says every morning. She is mi maestra for Español Funcional: Vocabulary for Basic Communication. Let me tell you, there is nothing basic about it. It's tough but Paquita is a great teacher.

Español Funcional is 3 horas en la mañana. We start at 8:00 and sometimes it's a little tough to follow, but once Paquita starts rolling, I'm get up to speed pretty quickly.

¡Vamanos Chicos! Click here for more pictures and higher quality pictures from this class!

This is my afternoon class Español Gramática. It's a little different than the morning class. Español Funcional is a different topic every day, where the Español Gramática is more of a building blocks kind of thing.

¡Vamanos Chicos! Click here for more pictures and higher quality pictures from this class!

Speaking of Español Gramática, I had a pretty tough week in there. We spent the week working on preterit verbs (that's past tense.) We took our weekly exam today and yo no puedé bien. We had a different teacher at the beginning of the week and I just wasn't getting it. Alejandre, la profesora mayor, came in on Miercoles (Wednesday) and righted the ship. I think I'll do OK next week, but today, ¡dios mio! I was happy to put school to rest for the weekend.

On of the interesting things about being part of this school is the different waves of people coming in and out. Last week was my first week so I met a ton of new people. Then some of them left and a bunch of new people came in. Now a bunch more people are leaving, some of my closest amigos actually, and that's sad. For example, Corrie (on the left, taken, I think, at the moment he finished his Masters Degree) left today. But, I know that it will be fun to met a whole bunch of estudiantes nuevos on Lunes (Monday).

Hasta luego Corri y Tori (who left yesterday. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of her with the class.) Drop me a line when you get a chance.

Fresher Air - A Brilliant Design

2008-07-10T22:16:00.000-05:00

It's been 2 weeks since I've been in air conditioning. That's right. My body has been the temperature it's designed to be relative to the temperature outside and the material and amount of clothes I'm wearing for 14 straight days. It feels great.

Here's a picture of the house I'm staying in. It's the azul one on the right. That azul cushion is one of the ones from the earlier post.
This is the view just outside the front door.
I can't begin to explain how incredible the clouds are.

I can't begin to explain how good the fresh tortillas are.

Poco a Poco

2008-07-09T21:47:00.003-05:00

That's my new favorite phrase. Little by little . . . so many things.

What a week. One of the great things about being here is that, since I don't know the language, I have friends everywhere I turn. It's incredible. Just like sitting on the porch, if I'm not afraid and I put it out there that I don't know very much but I'm trying, there's always a friendly face.

My favorite story to tell right now is of the young lady that works at the OXXO, which is basically a 7-11 right down the street from where I live. It's strange, but the fact that I don't know the language actually helps our relationship, rather than hinder. When I first started going there she was very helpful, and would slowly say the cost (numbers are very hard to understand at standard speed) and would help me with other things. Now that I'm understanding a little more and I can speak more, I can tell that she's happy for me. That's something that never happens in Chicago. Why would it?

I just can't believe how many great people I'm meeting. Here's a couple highlights of people I've met outside of school.

* Today - I can't believe I can't remember his name, but he was born in Cuernavaca and lived in Glenview for 8 years working in restaurants. I met him at the counter at the camera shop. We talked travel, music, Cueranvaca vs. Chicago, and the joys of life.

* Yesterday - I was waiting out the rain at a great restaurant and met Rosy, an older women who is a high school English teacher, as well as a senior citizen computer teacher. Here husband pasted a while back. They're from Mexico, but they lived in England for a long time. She gave me some great Spanish lessons and we talked about teaching and about learning and about life. She ended up give me a ride home. We're going to get together next week for another chat.

So with all this talk I haven't had much time to play music. But I did find someone to teach me some Mexican songs. His name is Alejandro and he teaches spanish at Uninter. On Tuesday we sat down on a bench at the school and we talked all about music and life and teaching, (the usual Jason subjects) and had a grand time. We learned Las Mañanitas, which he says is the "most important folk song in all of Mexico." He would fit in great at the Old Town School. First he gave me the song's background. Then he taught me the words. Then he taught me the tune. And just like so many of my classes, the instrument came last.

Like I said, though, I haven't had much time to play. That's OK. It'll come.

Here's a picture of my notebook. I haven't written this much by hand since high school. Believe it or not, my hand writing has actually gotten considerably worse over the years. And it wasn't too pretty to start with.

So my second week at the school is coming to an end. I was only going to go for three weeks, but this is just so much fun, I don't know, I might need to do four. Oscar and I are going to get together to play tomorrow and I think I'm going to in to Mexico City to find the famous Plaza Garibaldi on Saturday or Sunday.

Oh my gosh. So much more. I'll try to post again this weekend.

Thanks for reading,
Jason

Fin de Semana Prima - Getting the General Idea

2008-07-03T23:23:00.006-05:00

It's an anniversary of sorts. Yesterday was the end of my first week in Cuernavaca and tomorrow will be the end of my first week an Universidad Internacional. It sure went quick. The Unitner (as they call it for short) has been a great choice. I have about 50 new friends and there's a great "we're all in this together," kind of feel. Plus, I've had 2 salsa classes and one evening of salsa dancing. I am dang tired!

Last night's homework was pretty tough so I was up late, which made today muy defacile to get through. I needed an extra café soló en la manaña, knowing it was my own fault because before I did my tarae (homework) I went to el centro for 1/2 price movie night and caught an español version of Kung Fu Panda. I can't tell you many of the details, but it was very funny and had a blast being in a theater with so many kids howling with laughter.

I spent today with my new friends Kumi (Japanese, living in northern Canada), Judy (British born, living and teaching French in L.A.) and Geri (15-years-old, born in Venezuela, living in South Carolina) and her mom Eveline (born in Holland, a Spanish professor, living in South Carolina). We took a tour of Xochicalco, which is the ruins of one of the great meso-american cities. This is a picture of me on the main temple. The inhabitants had a great deal of astronomical knowledge and the most impressive part was the observatory. The structure is huge. At it's center is a small room with a hole in the ceiling no more than 2 feet wide. Every year, at mid-day of the summer solstice, the whole room is illuminated.

Then we were off to Hacienda de Cortes, the summer home and sugar factory of Hernando Cortes, which is now a hotel and garden. It was quite beautiful.

Our guide, who's name I can't remember, had a severe limp and a specially formed shoe on his left foot. When asked why he regaled us with the story of having his foot bitten off by a lemon shark while he was a scuba diving guide in Veracruz. It sounded like quite a story, but I'll have to find him and have him tell it again when I know a little more español. Like the movie (and the tour of Xochicalco for that matter) I can tell you the general idea, but I didn't get much of the details.

Oddly enough, he knew all about the Cubs' 100-year drought and loves béisbol.

Oh my. It's almost midnight. ¡Necesito esta despierto at 6:30!

Buenos noches.

Wishing Wells

2008-06-30T21:45:00.003-05:00

I feel that sitting on the porch and playing music is like being a wishing well. The well is just there being itself, but a lot can happen because of that.

Mi Amigos Nueva en Música

2008-06-30T20:31:00.002-05:00

Hola amigos,

¡Hoy es me prima dia en la esqual Universidad Internacional! My first class was really easy so I'm switching to a harder one tomorrow. I'm nervous about that. The speaking part is my favorite.
But two much more pressing matter.

This is Oscar (en la izquierda, tienes 12 años) y Diego (en derecho, tienes 14 años). They are mi amigos nuevo en músic.

I was sitting on the porch playing my banjo (see the posting from 06/25/08), and Oscar, mi vencino (my neighbor), came by and asked me, en español, if I knew how to play guitar . Turns out he has a guitar but didn't know how to play it. So, we sat down and began learning. Let me tell you . . . he plays now!

It was Oscar's first lesson. We played small C and small G7 and sang and played "Pay Me My Money Down." Then we got down to Small G and D7 and played "La Bamba."

Now, mind you, I only speak a little Spanish and Oscar only speaks a little English, pero, we both did great!

Diego came by a little later. He has a few lessons under his belt and is ready to rock, but I think he's going to like this folk music stuff, too. When he came over we picked up the tempo a bit and played through "La Bamba" and "Pay Me My Money Down" again. Both of them learned the chorus perfecto, and we sang and played all evening.

I'm sure I'll be playing all summer.

I finally had to call it quits when my stomach started growling. Check it out! I made my first guacamole of the summer. It's really good. The avocados here are awesome, just as I was hoping. I'm really coming into things routine-wise, and today was my first trip to the grocery store where I felt like I actually accomplished getting food for a meal or two. That's good because I've been spending too much money eating out.

I must admit, though, I couldn't find the corn chips. I KNOW! The chip aisle only had potato chips and Doritos. So chalked it up to I don't know what, and settled on some tostadas. They work fine.

Well, tengo tareas poder. (I have homework to do.)

Hasta luego amigos,
Jason

Filling Up the Vacation Bingo Card

2008-06-28T23:57:00.000-05:00

Picture of an old church.
* Check - that' the free space.
Turned right instead of left. Found my self where I didn't think I was.
* Check.
Forgot the sunscreen back in the room.
* Check.
Waited for others outside of a museum.
* Check.
Invested in mosquito spray.
* Check.
Got that, "This is not my hometown grocery store. Who knows what I'll find here." feeling.
* Check.

I hope they call, "Buy a beach towel." next.

Settling In

2008-06-27T20:57:00.000-05:00

Settling in.
School starts manaña.
Listening to the Tigers on the porch.

¿Como se dice "Front Porch Music"?

2008-06-25T21:56:00.000-05:00

Hey,
There where a couple moments I didn't think I was going to make it, but I made it. I'm never flying a "red eye" flight again.

Here's a picture of my front porch for the summer. I already got some compliments on the banjo and a couple curious young girls asked me if I was a music teacher. I met my neighbor who's name is Grace of all things (my very good friend and neighbor in Chicago is named Grace).

Tomorrow, I have to figure out where to get some coffee.

Adiós,
Jason

The First Thing I Did was Burn My Journals

2008-06-23T03:13:00.000-05:00

Actually, the first thing I did was take a nap. Then I burned all my journals.

I'm done teaching for the summer.

Miki and I had a little ceremony this evening, where I read a few select and a few random passages from journals I've been keeping since 1998. Then we burned them and roasted marshmallows.

Parts of the experience were tough and moments where quite physically beautiful. All and all it was very cleansing. You might wonder why I would burn my journals, or maybe why I would journal in the first place. I see it like this.

If I was creating a wood carving, I wouldn't save all the wood shavings, I'd only save the carving. Now, since I graduated from college (and began the task of living a much fuller life), I've been working on a sculpture and this sculpture is me. The journals where the shavings of this sculpture. They needed to be created, but now they've fulfilled their use.

I could have just thrown them in the dumpster, but I felt like they needed more respect than that.

Soon, I will have no apartment and I'll be off to a country where I don't speak the language. I feel another journal coming on; a new sculpture.