i'm listening to the last movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony right now. all i have to say is...the huge parts where the brass sections really come out....SO DAMN HOT.

ok that's all.

if you visit mexico, whatever you do, don't visit in the summer. it rains...actually, no..it freaking FLOODS every single day in the afternoon. i don't think i've ever seen such a poopy summer, weather and temperature wise!

Last week at work was pretty uneventful….The stuff that they’re living me to do just isn’t taking that long, even though I think that they think that it will take a while. But it really doesn’t, and I’m not sure if they realize that or not….even after I’ve told them that. Oh well. Plus, I’m waiting on a whole bunch of stuff from other people, and the higher up in the organizational hierarchy that you get, the slower the information flows down to you. So yea, it’s a whole lot of waiting, sitting around, checking email every 15 minutes, reading bbc.co.uk/football, wasting time on facebook, working on essays, attempting to write some short stories, and all of this while half-heartedly reading about diabetes. It’s funny, apparently half of the other people do the same thing..I think TC was telling us about how he was just surfing around playing games on the web. And Leah was looking at Puerto Vallarta stuff, haha.

Basically it means that during the week, nothing eventful really ever happens. Which is kinda ok with me, because whereas I like hanging out with people, I think it’s nice to have my own solitude too. For example, on Sunday, I found this café in my neighbourhood (I’ve actually passed it a billion times without ever thinking of going in) and just sat there and had coffee and a croissant and wrote. And then I went back to the apartment, wrote some, talked on the phone for a looooong time (hehe), drank tea and wrote some more, all while blasting Dvorak 8 and other awesome pieces from my laptop. It was nice. I prefer life like this than to going out to bars and stuff. Which is why I’m kinda glad that I live in Narvarte instead of Condesa, even though everyone else lives in Condesa. Condesa is basically known for being the “SoHo” of Mexico City, which is cool, especially for young people. I don’t know. I guess I feel like I’ve been pushed through life too quickly…so in a way, I wouldn’t consider myself wise and mature, but at the same time, I can’t imagine myself REALLY enjoying going out to clubbing and bars all the time. Yet, I think it’s still fun once in a while, especially when you’re with people who you’re really good friends with.

But the weekends here are a lot more fun, thankfully. On Friday, I went over to the other students’ apartment and hung out there for a while after meeting up with Leah and spending the some time in the HUGEST artesan market ever. It was amazing! So many arts and crafts stuff that actually LOOK Mexican – most of the random stuff that they sell on the streets here is stuff that you can find in the US (like lighters, dvds, and porn, to name a few), so I don’t really like buying stuff off the streets. But this artesan place was amazing – there was even a guy actually MAKING guitars and violins as we walked by! I asked him how much the violin cost, and it was…get this…65 freaking dollars. Um, cheapest violin EVER. Maybe it’s not the greatest violin in the world, but that’s still pretty neat. I’m gonna have to go back there again and take a closer look at all the stuff there. The thing though, is that there’s so many people and stuff there, that I feel like half the people are lucky if they even get a few customers a day at their stalls. And I feel really bad for them, because everything is freaking hand-made, yet so cheap! For example, there was this one woman selling these really nice earrings for $3 each. We asked her how long it took her to make one pair, and she said it took one entire day…..

Anyways, we got back from the artesan place, and then went with T.C to get dinner at…Burger King. Hahaha. It was soooo good though, I think I just really miss American food. I think we freaked out this little kid sitting behind us though. So remember how I had said earlier that in Mexico, the ONLY people you ever see are Mexicans? Haha so yea, this little kid had probably never seen an Asian person, a white person, or a black person before, and here we are, all in one place at the same time. After that Leah and I went with Nicki to this party that Nicki’s boss was having at his place, and we were supposed to meet up with Luis, TC, and Reggie later on at Mama Rumba. The party wasn’t really a party, just some people from Nicki’s work place sitting around with alcohol…it was fun though. We finally made it over to Mama Rumba (salsa dancing place that Nicki REALLY likes) at like 1:30 am, and seriously, I hate to be negative but I am never going there again! I suppose it’s a great place if you love salsa and clubbing and stuff, but I could never get used to the fact that there’s strange people who are all jammed up against you. And these people were OLD. I got stuck dancing with one person for like 10 minutes because the song was so damn long, and then Leah and I both left because we were just so grossed out, haha. We got back to the house, and the boys arrived there soon afterwards, and we just sat around talking until 4:30 before we realized that we needed to kinda sleep so that we could go the pyramids (Teotihuacan) the next day.

Saturday was Teotihuacan, which was really fun, despite a few mishaps…! We (Luis, TC, Leah, me) left the apartment around 10:30 am, but didn’t get to Teotihuacan until 3 pm on what was supposed to be a 1.5 hour trip. That was really amusing when we figured it out. So what happened is that Nicki and Reggie had gone the week before, and they mentioned not to get off at the first stop, but the 2nd or 3rd instead. Ok, cool. We got to the first stop, saw the pyramids, and we were all like, ok fine, let’s wait for the second stop. So we keep driving, and we start noticing that…we don’t see pyramids anymore. Ok, still cool, maybe the bus is just going around to the other side of the pyramids. We go a little while longer, and finally we ask the bus driver. Ends up that we had passed the pyramids a LONG time ago. So we got off the bus and basically retraced our steps backwards to the pyramids, lol. The pyramids were pretty neat – Teotihuacan is this old ancient city that was so old that when the Aztecs came to Mexico, they found Teotihuacan in ruins. No one knows what happened to the people there. It’s basically like a mini city with things that you can climb and admire the view from. The pyramids themselves are the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon (which was actually closed off so we couldn’t climb that one), and I think they were used as temples. The Pyramid of the Sun is in fact the third largest pyramid in the world (the first two are the ones in Egypt), but even then, it’s still only half the height of the second largest pyramid. Well, it looked pretty intimidating from the base! The weird thing though, is that it was relatively easy to climb. There were only 248 steps (which is not a lot, considering how huge the thing looks), and it took us about 15 minutes to get up all of them. Then we stood at the top and took pretty pictures. I took this pretty awesome picture of TC pretending like he’s climbing over the edge of the pyramid without steps, hehe. OH and there’s also this piece of silver embedded at the top of the pyramid – apparently you’re supposed to put your finger on it, and make a wish! I hope my wish comes true. =) And yea, I totally climbed that beast wearing flip-flops!

Naturally, at 5 pm that day, it started to rain, so we ran half the way back from the pyramid to the bus stop. Thankfully, the bus ride back was only an hour, since we figured it all out correctly this time! Went back to the apartment and went to dinner at HOOTERS…hahaha I love how we’re totally not eating Mexican food in Mexico. Luis apparently went there during the week because it’s pretty close to his workplace and he said the wings were really good, so we decided to go there. I seriously have NEVER eaten such spicy wings in my life, plus the waitress kinda messed up our order. We ordered 10 of the spiciest ones, 50 of the normal ones, 20 barbeque and 20 of the kinda hot ones. Instead, we got 10 of the normal ones and FIFTY of the spiciest ones. Ohhh man. I ate one and was tearing up and I’ve NEVER teared up before while eating spicy things. So I gave up and ate the bbq and regular ones. Leah had one bite and gave up. TC, Luis, and Reggie were all SWEATING like crazy but I think they wanted to tough it out, so they ate the spicy ones. Plus a buttload of beer. Reggie went to the rest room and was like “oh man. I washed my hands before I went but…it wasn’t enough.” Hahahahahahah so classic. Afterwards we walked around for a while trying to find a bar or something, but everything looked close (perhaps we were too early, apparently Mexico doesn’t start partying until midnight anyways)…plus I was tired and not really in the mood to go out anyways. We ended up going back to their apartment and tried to look up bars. Reggie found a place called “Pervert Lounge,” no joke. I went home so I don’t know if they went or not, but not gonna lie, I’m kinda curious..!

Sunday was just a lot of sitting around and some serious relaxing (as mentioned earlier in this post). So that was this week. I can’t believe it’s almost been a month since I’ve been here…it’s definitely flown by, but I have to say that I’m really glad it’s half over. Mexico is nice, but it’s not me. It’s definitely not me. I think Mexico would be a great place to go for a vacation, but as for living in Mexico, I’m not too sure. BUT we’ll see what happens next month!

the first part of a story i'm trying to see if i can develop into something...i vaguely know how i want this to end, but i have several different scenarios that i can't decide between. anyone have any suggestions as to how they'd like to see this developed? -->



It always rained in the afternoon. His normally bright hazel eyes darkened in annoyance when the first drops of rain abruptly made their presence known on the battered square window. He decided that it was time to pour himself a glass of whisky. Glenlivet, 1959. Same color as her skin. Maybe she thought it was pretty and that’s why she bought it. Nah, he thought, taking a sip of the pale gold liquid. She just has good taste. Expensive as hell, but good.

He leaned back in his chair and distractedly turned his gaze towards the office window. It was not the most comfortable of places, but it was good enough. Got him away at least. They always asked him what it was that he was trying to escape from, but he could never really explain it. “From it all?” he would haltingly answer after fumbling around with his thoughts for a few awkward seconds. The damn mess in his mind never really managed to untangle itself completely before the other person would uncomfortably start to shift his or her gaze away. “I guess I’m just trying to get away from it all.”

The rain started to pound on the windows. Well, he couldn’t get away from the rain. It was gonna be one helluva bus ride back home. The bus was sure to be filled with human bodies pressed against each other, reeking of sweat, oil, the latest trend in perfume, and undoubtedly, wet dog. And of course the windows would be sealed shut to keep out the rain and keep in the odors. Terrific. You'd be pressed uncomfortably against someone’s left shoulder with your right leg entangled in someone else’s handbag, and with nowhere to look except into the exhausted face of another person staring right back at you. It was better to strain your head over the sea of oily hair and soaked hats and make a poor attempt to stare at the sliver of visible window space. You couldn’t really make sense of the images that skipped before you because the colors whizzed by too quickly. Kinda like those kinetoscopes, where you peep through a tiny hole and watch the images whirl and arrange themselves into a story. But there was no order to the images moving outside.

i just realized that i haven't written in a long time. and i don't mean just writing in general - i mean writing as in writing stories and poems. i was reading someone else's posts last night, and i realized how much i missed doing that too. sure, it's nice to read technical papers and textbooks but writing stories is something...special, and different.

it's like music. it can take you out of this world and into another one and when you come back to the original world, you can't help but think what a loss it was to have to come back. yesterday i was sitting at my desk and Copland's Third Symphony came up on my playlist, and I literally just sat there staring blankly at my screen for the next 45 minutes, pretending to do work, while just...listening. how does it work? how do you put notes together in such a way to make them come together in such a beautiful format? i almost couldn't stand it when the brass fanfare came up in the beginning of the fourth movement - it was all too gorgeous and incredible to be real. i remember when we played this piece for MITSO and the concert was absolutely amazing especially at this part. the brass loved it. all of them would stay after rehearsal and just play that part over and over again. and then they'd finish and the rest of us would finish packing up our instruments and we would leave, still humming that portion in our heads the rest of the night.

how do you express it? how many people in the world can you really express to about how much you love music, and how many of them will understand?

Another week in Mexico just went by…this one went faster than the last one and it definitely helped that people are here now! TC and Reggie and I went out for dinner and TEQUILA shots on Monday because….we CAN =) They live in La Condesa, which is a really gorgeous place and really safe. People walk their dogs outside at 10 pm at night by themselves and they don’t even blink an eye. But the tequila shots were REALLY good…Hornitos tequila is the best – it was so smooth that we didn’t even know what to do. We tossed off the first shot and then asked for another with sangria, cuz that’s apparently how they drink it. However, the sangria isn’t like the wine + fruit juice thing here that we usually see – it’s like this tomato-ish thingy. Apparently you’re supposed to sip the tequila and the sangria separately, but TC got tired of it was like “fuck that” and just tossed down the two shots one after another. That seemed like a great idea to Reggie and the already half-drunk me (because the shots are actually two shots), so we decided to follow suit, but MAN this second time BURNED. I decided I was done, but we ordered a bunch of beers anyways. And then TC got a girl’s number! Hahah it was hilarious…lucky for TC the girl spoke English ;)

Work is getting slightly better cuz I’m getting more in the hang of things. It’s definitely different from lab, because in lab you’re always running around all day long doing experiment, but work is just, well, sitting there all day long in an office chair while staring at a computer screen…sometimes doing busy work is a lot better than doing actual work, because you can just mindlessly type while listening to music at the same time. Although one of my projects is pretty cool – I’m working with a mechE grad student from Instituto Politechnico on this project where we’re trying to convince shoe companies to install MEMS (microelectronicmechanical systems) into shoes. Well, I’m not dealing with any technical stuff, but my job was just to do a lot of research and find different precedents for these things. It’s actually pretty interesting – plus we got to go to a conference in Leon on Thursday! We presented our stuff to the shoe companies (in Spanish, so I was a little freaked out at first, plus on the sign-in sheet, it said “Dr. Stephanie Wang, MIT” so I was thinking “oh crap, now everyone’s gonna think I’m some Mech E professor from MIT.” ) But it turned out well anyways, and no one asked me anything technical, so whew. Like all meetings, it was a little repetitive and nothing REALLY got done, but I think it ended pretty well. It was especially amusing for me, because during my part of the presentation, I mentioned how you could use MEMS in shoes for diabetics to measure pressure, humidity, and temperature. And then after the presentation, the people from the shoe company argued for long time about what to use MEMS for. And then, one guy goes “wait, what if we use MEMS in shoes for diabetics to measure pressure, humidity, and temperature?” and everyone else was like “WOW! What a great idea!” Of course, I’m just sitting there thinking “are you SERIOUS? We said that like, uh, an hour ago?.” But whatever, at least they came to an agreement and we can now move forward with stuff. Plus Leon is a nice city and slightly reminded me of Houston!

On Friday I finally met up with everyone else! Leah, Nikki, Luis, and TC all live in a house together in La Condesa (two rooms and four people, not sure how they’re doing sleeping arrangements) and Reggie lives really close by them. So I’ve gotta figure out how to use public transportation to go visit! I’m so excited that everyone’s here, especially Leah since I know her already! Everyone else is really cool too, though. Nikki, Luis, TC, and Reggie eventually went clubbing and bar hopping while Leah and I walked around La Condesa - it’s a really gorgeous neighborhood. It was HILARIOUS when the other people came back though. Soooo drunk! And TC didn’t make it back with them! Hahahaha. Apparently he was out driving around with some random girls the entire night), but he made it back safely at least. I ended up talking to Reggie for a long time, and it was funny because we were kinda loud, and Luis was sitting on a beanbag chair while typing away on a laptop, but he totally fell asleep while still in the typing position (with his hands on the keyboard still).

We were supposed to get up at 7 am the next day (Saturday) to go to see Teotihuacan, but seeing how we all went to bed at 3:30 or so, that didn’t really happen – plus we thought it was gonna rain! So we decided to go to Coyoacan instead, which is a really nice little square down in the heart of Mexico. They sell so many crafty little things there! Nikki also had an interesting brush-up with a scary Gothic Mexican guy lol. We saw her there talking to him, but we weren’t sure whether or not we were supposed to “save” her from him, so we kinda didn’t. But it all turned out ok, so it’s all good.

It actually did start to rain, but it wasn’t that bad, so Leah and I split from everyone else and walked back to the metro station instead of cabbing it back. We stopped by this mall on the way back and it’s crazy! Like when you walk into it, it’s literally like you just walked into America from the streets – it’s such a big difference between inside the mall and outside on the streets. Actually, I bought this really good taco from a street stand beforehand and they gave me a plate and I just walked off with it. But apparently, you’re supposed to give the plate back…oops…I actually had to walk all the way back just to give the plate back to them. After that we stopped by Wal-mart. It’s so funny that they have Wal-mart here! Actually right by my office, there’s not only a Wal-mart (the sign says “siempre” instead of “always”) but also a Krispy Kreme and a McDonald’s. Although I guess the McDonald’s isn’t that impressive because there’s McDonald’s everywhere.

Today (Sunday) I went with Madai (one of my bosses) and her parents to the Turibus, which is pretty cool cuz it takes you all the way around the city on a double decker bus. It’s really funny because you actually have to watch out for the branches from the trees hitting your head (well, not me because I’m short), and there’s even signs on the bus that say “Remain seated” with a picture of a guy getting hit in the head with a tree branch. We stopped by the Zocalo again and this time actually got a LONG explanation of the murals in the palace! It was crazy – I have no idea how the guide memorized everything and she didn’t even use ANY notes at all! And it must have been at least an hour of her just constantly talking and NOT even stopping to take a breath to explain every single little detail of the mural (not gonna lie, I zoned out several times).

So that was that. A more interesting week, but we’ll see how this week turns out.

Junior year is done…I almost can’t believe that it’s over though – it was definitely the toughest year, physically, mentally, academically, and psychologically, for me, but in the end, everything turned out surprisingly well. Well, ok, first semester SUCKED. hahaha the people on my floor know what a mess I was by the end of it. =) And IAP + the beginning and middle of second semester really sucked as well. But…I don’t know. In May, everything kinda just…came together…I don’t know how to describe it, and I don’t understand how it worked, but it just did. Grades were surprisingly higher than I had expected (I seriously went through BioChem II not really that stressed out since I thought that due to the ridiculously smart chem. Grad students and the ridiculous large standard deviations, I’d get a B regardless of how much or how hard I worked…but I didn’t..:)…), and people were great, as always...i'm gonna miss the seniors a LOT – and....well, let’s just say that I also met some people towards very end of the year who I wish I had met earlier ;)

So I’m officially in Mexico right now…it’s kinda interesting. For those of you who don’t know, I’m spending two months here working at the US-Mexico Foundation for Science in Mexico City.

It’s a nice city – crowded as hell, though! When we were landing, all you could literally see where blocks and blocks of houses and buildings and nothing else. I’ve never seen so many buildings crammed into one square mile, although Taipei might be up in the running for the most crowded city as well.

The people here are all really nice, though, despite the fact that everyone STARES at me because I’m obviously a foreigner. Sometimes, when you’re stuck on the trolleybus in the morning and it’s all crowded and stuff, they get tired of staring at you and they start staring down your shirt instead. Fun stuff. BUT at least I’m actually taller than like half the people here, women AND men! That’s exciting. At first I thought it was only because I wore heels to work and stuff, but then I started just wearing slippers to work and then changing into heels when I got to the office, and the people are still shorter. Wheeee.

Oh, right, the public transportation system here is actually really good! Good as in it’s very useful and can take you literally anywhere (unlike the dear Metrorail in Houston hahhaa). It’s also really really different though, because at least in places like Boston and Houston, they say the names of the stops as they get close to them. Nope, not here. Needless to say, I’ve gotten ridiculously lost several times already, but luckily, again, the people are really nice and they’ve helped me find my way back. So I live on Calle La Quebrada in Colonia Narvarte, and NO ONE knows where the hell La Quebrada is, but everyone knows where Calle La Quemada is…consequently, that’s led to a lot of confusion as well. Actually, TC (another one of the MIT students) arrived in the city yesterday and is staying at my apartment for a day until the rent as his place starts, but his taxi driver took forever to find the place because, naturally, he got La Quemada confused with La Quebrada.

So overall, it’s nice here – I guess it’s always hard to get settled in the first week or so, but hopefully it should all turn out well as more people start arriving. I’m so excited! Leah, Nikki, and Luis all arrive next week, I think, and Reggie will also be here! Hahahha I’m so glad Reggie will be here in the city and not in Monterrey.

I miss people back in the States a LOT though…I didn’t think I’d ever miss the US until I actually came here. But it’s what they say, right? You never know what you have until you don’t have it anymore? I reckon that doesn’t really apply, because I’m going back in August anyways, but still.

It’ll be a long two months, but hopefully it’ll be worth it! I think I’ll be writing something in this dormant blog every week or so, just as a recap.

I always wonder though, how this summer will turn out....can't expect too much, right?….but, we’ll see. It’s two months.