Un Mes en CDMX
Como puedes escribir sobre una experiencia que fundamentally cambio sus sentimientos completamente? Después, no puedes sentir el mismo que antes. No quieres. Regresaras y que?*
There’s a part of my brain that rarely gets used. The part that can switch between languages to debate philosophy, history, and the experience of identities past and present. The part that can, through repetition, develop a working grasp of tactile skills while the hours slip away unnoticed. That can find words in other languages that are harder to express in English. That part was on fire for four weeks during my solo trip to Mexico City.
I arrived with a loose itinerary: walk or bike the city to the point of exhaustion Sunday to Friday, take a ceramics course for four hours each Saturday. I brought my constant companion, Reggie of the West (my first pet and soon-to-be beloved viejito for the tiny block of Londres we occupied during our stay), a few guidebooks and clothes that were too warm for the weather. I intentionally didn’t ask for any introductions in advance (but welcomed those that were sent my way) determined to try to make a life with as little contact with the English speaking crowd as possible.
Y que paso? Un tiempo inolvidable.
My ceramics course was taught by un hombre con sangre Mexicano (a phrase I heard from a guide during a tour of a Barragan house) and all of the students in the atelier were Spanish speaking. Each week I left fatigued: physically taxed having only taken 1 ceramics class in my life and mentally depleted having to try to understand phrases that you’d never learn in a traditional spanish class. Just understanding the first day that I needed to knead the “pasta” 238 times to ensure all the air was removed was
Everywhere I went, people assumed I lived there. Most spoke to me in Spanish and didn’t usually comment on my ability to reply. A handful just couldn’t understand HOW I could speak Spanish much less WHY I learned it. That last group confused me.
A month wasn’t nearly enough time, but I had to return to deal with life in the states. I’ll be back. La proxima vez, posiblemente para siempre.
*translation and grammatical services will not be used in this blog or on my posts. I want to challenge my mind to remember what was once second nature and with time will sit still to study again.
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