Mexico City

(Megan, Maggie, Antonio, Kelly, me)

So this is supposed to be about Boulder and Brooklyn and Boulder to Brooklyn, but I just spent an amazing five days in Mexico City visiting my great friend Maggie. She's living there with her husband, Antonio, in a beautiful colonial neighborhood called Coyoacan. We had a Thanksgiving with 14 people, including Antonio's old friend from Sydney, Dwayne; Maggie's friend from high school in San Fran, Kelly; my friend Megan, who's an atmospheric chemist working in Mexico City for two years; some of Antonio's family and friends from university; four pies (two pumpkin, one apple, one pecan); two turkeys (one with achiote, one with rosemary); cranberry salad, mashed potatoes, chocolate-covered strawberries (as if we needed more dessert), chocolate cookies (as if we needed *more* dessert), and glasses and glasses of wine.

And while New York is big, Mexico City is BIG big: I've read 25 million. I've heard 22 million. OK, so the census says that NYC is 19,306,183—no small potatoes here. And there are parts of MC that are incredibly peaceful, like some of the squares in Coyoacan and San Angel. Even more peaceful than here in NYC. But still: when Maggie and I went to the Zocalo—the main square in the middle of the city—it was insane with people. They'd just installed the world's biggest ice-skating rink, erected a fake Christmas tree that seemed about 20 stories high, and trucked in real snow so people could sled and build snowmen in the 70-degree heat.


The only place I've seen a bigger crowd was in Times Square on election night! But it was so dynamic and colorful everywhere we went—food carts, bright buildings, street musicians, banners and lights, a wee bit of traffic (hah!), murals, and beautiful churches. So much long history here. I said to someone, "It makes New York feel like a village." That might be a bit of a stretch (or maybe I'm getting used to NY?), but like I said, it was BIG. And awesome.

We squeezed a lot into a short amount of time: catching up over tea that I brought down from Teany; going to a few great artisan and food markets; salsa dancing (I was SUCH a goddamn fool on the dance floor); mezcal drinking; pyramid climbing; pug playing (Maggie and Antonio have a puppy, Lola); walking walking walking; museum going; coffee cake eating (thanks, Megs!); and generally staying up too late, eating too much, and laughing a lot.

A little taste: