8, 9, 10, 11, 12 February 2017

Alright, I did this to myself:
8 February, 9 February, 10 February, 11 February, and 12 February 2017
Eeek! That’s a lot. But it’s better to be doing than being concerned about posting. Forgive me because this will be a long post with lots of pictures!

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8 February 2017

Nothing much happened this day because Marisa and I were supposed to leave for Puebla. I decided to go with her since it would be just for a few days. I spent the whole day on edge expecting her to come back from a meeting so we could head out. But then we ended up not leaving for Puebla. I spend the day writing and reading a bit. When she decided we weren’t leaving, I went for a walk and went to the store.

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9 February 2017

We went left for Puebla at 6:45 am and arrived at Marisa’s physical therapy appointment at 9am. We then went from there to her office, which is not actually at the hotel since the hotel is still in construction. It is in a car dealership which is owned by the same people. I then went with her to the owner’s house so she could inspect some furniture they have in storage there that the hotel administration could use in the meantime while they receive all the furniture and the hotel is finished. We then stopped at her apartment which is very close to the owner’s house and dropped off all our luggage. Then we returned to her office and finally we went to the Hotel which is still in construction. She had a meeting with all the head’s of the departments to inspect how the construction is coming along.

We left there finally at night fall and then headed to Marisa’s apartment. We then had the exciting experience of being pulled over by the local police because she apparently ran a red light, which is kind of ridiculous that she was pulled over because I’ve seen most people here run red lights but whatever. Since we were in Puebla and she has license plates from Mexico City, he was going to actually confiscate her license and to get it back she would have to pay it, but could only pay it within business hours and after they processed her ticket. So technically her license would be available Saturday, but she could only get it back by paying the ticket and the ticket could only be paid between Mon-Fri. Basically it just wasn’t going to work, so she told him that she isn’t from Puebla, only visiting, and she needed to leave on Saturday. There is not a unified system in Mexico with the license plates, so they couldn’t just send the ticket in the mail or anything. She then sweet talked and told him that she was 56 and had never gotten a ticket in her life. He then replied that he could help her if she helped him (basically he wanted money), and she just said, then just give me the ticket. And then he just let her go.

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10 February 2017

We went again to Marisa’s physical therapy appointment and from there I walked to the center of Puebla. I saw an exhibit of Michelangelo that has been traveling through Mexico. Marisa had a free ticket so that was nice. I then walked to La Casa De La Cultura and the Biblioteca Palafoxiana which was an exhibition space of the cities. There was a very old and beautiful library and also an exhibition of the old artifacts from the Cathedral that was across the street. I went into the Cathedral, but it was packed with people because there was ordinations of Deacons going on that day.

I then got something to eat and sat in one of the parks for a long time because I started to get a migraine. I talked on the phone for a bit. While I sat there on my phone looking for a route back to Marisa’s office, a guy asked if he could sit on the bench next to me. Since the park was really busy, I said it was fine. He then started talking to me and was saying that he’s new to Puebla and is trying to meet new people. He just goes around trying to meet people. I know that I have to be on my guard a bit more here, so I just kind of sat there staring at him trying to decide what to do as he talked at me. Overall, no safety alarms went off and I realized he just wanted to a.) meet new people to get to know Puebla better with and b.) flirt. He had bad luck sitting next to me because a.) I don’t know Puebla at all and b.) I don’t flirt haha. He gave me a paper with his number so I could “send him a WhatsApp” - sorry Gabo, I don’t think that’s going to happen, but I wish you then best of luck.

I then tried calling Marisa to tell her that I was on a certain street but she didn’t answer and I kept walking. I tried calling her again after a bit and she said she was at the bank (she didn’t say where and I had no idea where she could be) and she would call me back in a bit. I just kept walking on this street because it seemed fairly direct to arrive at her office, albeit a bit of a distance (3 km) from where I had started. I walked past a bank and no joke, Marisa comes out pulls out her phone to call me back and by the time it started ringing I was standing in front of her. If we had tried to coordinate that, it never would have happened. So providentially, I got a ride back with her.

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11 February 2017

Marisa still had to work on Saturday morning, so I once again went downtown and used a coupon for a tourbus that takes you all around the city. It takes you up the mountains to the historical forts and you can even see the two semi-active volcanos in the distance. It was a beautiful day with absolutely clear skies so I quite enjoyed it. When that ended, I walked part of the way back to Marisa’s work and then took a bus to somewhere closer.

We then drove back to Mexico City where I worked on editing my LinkedIn page and my resume.

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12 February 2017

I spent the day with Yolanda. We went to two different art fairs that are going on in Mexico City right now. Zona Maco is huge and there were a lot of people. It was an interesting event but tiring. We then went to a Thai place for lunch and got some ginger tea soda and then headed to the second smaller fair. After that we got some coffee at AlmaNegra, a coffee stand that Saniego and Yo used to frequent a lot when they lived closer to Marisa.