This will be my first Christmas in Mexico City in my new home.  Even though I am still in the process of settling in and organizing the apartment the way I want it, I am decorating the place for the holidays. I began with the front door.   While Alejandro and I were at Sears during the "Buen Fin" shopping weekend, we found a Christmas doormat that wasn't made in China.  At a nearby market, I found some garland to drape around the door.  While I was walking around with Alejandro in his neighborhood, we found a shop selling Christmas figures (made of acrylic, I believe ..read more

 It is December and time to flip the calendar to the last page.  The calendar which I made featuring photos I took at the Cleveland Museum of Art has a work appropriate for the Christmas season. "Virgin and Child with the Young St. John the Baptist" was painted around 1490.  It is attributed to Sandro Botticelli (oops, I misspelled his name on the calendar).  Botticelli was an important painter of the early Italian Renaissance.  Since he often collaborated with students in his workshop, it is not clear whether or not he painted the entire work.  However, ex ..read more

I had read online that this week there was going to be a "Poinsettia Fair" in Iztacalco.  Iztacalco is the smallest of Mexico City's "alcaldías" (boroughs).  According to the article, the fair was to be held for four days in front of the borough's government offices.  It would feature more than 100 local flower growers selling a wide variety of poinsettias.  When I checked on Google Maps and saw that the borough offices are located by a stop on Line 2 of the Metrobus... a line that runs just a couple of blocks from my apartment... I decided yesterday to check out the event ..read more

Once Revolution Day and the "Buen Fin" have passed, it is time to think about decorating for Christmas.  In all the public markets, stalls selling Christmas decorations appear.  I had already made a trip to the market in nearby Colonia del Valle and bought a few things.  On Friday I took the subway and made a quick trip to Jamaica Market, which is always very festive during this season. There is one enormous stall adjacent to the main market building which is filled with nothing but piñatas at this time of year. Some of the piñatas are gigantic, bigger than I am. Ther ..read more

A while back, on one of my wanderings in Mexico City, I came to one of the branches of "El Pédulo", a chain of really cool stores that are a combination coffee shop and bookshop.  I went inside to browse, without any intention of buying anything.  However, I saw a thick, historical novel which caught my attention.  The book is called "México" and is written by Pedro Angel Palou.  I had never heard of the author before.  I did some research on him later.  He is a novelist, journalist, historian and educator.  For a few years (2005 - 2007) he was the presiden ..read more

If you have been following my blog, you know that for a number of years I had rented the Mexico City apartment where I now permanently reside.  The former owners left the apartment completely furnished for me, and although it was very tastefully decorated, I still wanted to make it my own.  Over the course of several trips to Mexico this year I packed in my suitcases small items that I wanted down here.  I hired an international moving company to ship the larger things that I wanted transported.  Although there is still work to be done, the apartment is gradually being tran ..read more

On Thanksgiving Day, the weather here was gray and chilly.  It wasn't supposed to rain, although there were occasional light sprinkles, what the Mexicans call "chipichipi".  It would have been a good day to just stay in the apartment, but it was my cleaning lady's day to come, and I had to get out of her way.  So, I put on my warmest jacket and ventured out.  I decided to go to some of the shopping malls, not to shop, but to take some photos of their Christmas decorations. The closest to me, just across the street from the World Trade Center, is a small mall calle ..read more

I mentioned previously that last weekend was the "Buen Fin", the start of the Christmas shopping season when all the stores have sales. Alejandro and I took advantage of the sales and did some shopping, not for Christmas presents, but for the apartment.  We needed to buy a washer / dryer combo.   Although the washing machine is still working, the dryer above it is not.  A few years ago, the former owner of the apartment had the dryer repaired.  Since this is the second time it has gone kaput, we decided that is time to buy a new one.  We decided on Mabe, the leadi ..read more

Tuesday and Wednesday nights here in Mexico City were chilly and rainy.  Just look at the results of that in this dramatic photo of the snow-covered volcano Iztaccíhuatl which someone sent to Alejandro. I often post photos of Popocatépetl from the Mexican webcams website, but Iztaccíhuatl (Izta for short) is the other volcano (this one non-active) to the east of Mexico City.  I don't think I have ever seen it with this much snow! The picture certainly does not match the image of tropical Mexico that most people have.  The last couple days have indeed been dreary and chilly.&nb ..read more

I have been in Mexico for nearly a month, and, for the most part, the weather has been perfect with lots of sunshine and high temperatures in the afternoon above 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  There were several days where the temperature rose above 80, a bit unusual for the month of November.   Tuesday night a cold front came through and it rained.  The low went down to 44.  Wednesday morning was chilly and depressingly gray.  I actually felt cold (most Mexican homes do not have heat), and I put on a sweater over a long-sleeve shirt.  The sun eventually came o ..read more