CDMX - Rest Day
20 March, 2023
We were already intending on having this be a good “rest” or planning day, given most museums and similar attractions are closed, but the timing was even more fortuitous. At least, in a manner of speaking. My partner was feeling ill and this was the observed day for the birthday of Benito Juarez - a pretty critical “founding father” of Mexico I have mentioned in previous posts.
Here I sit in a fairly good cocktail bar attached to a pizza joint. Playing are a number American music videos. I had no idea “We built this city on rock and roll” would try to match its insipid lyrics with what amounts to a waking 1980s nightmare.
Idk maybe I’m in a Mood.
It’s now apt to call this stuff granddad music. “Simply Irresistible” could be a heartfelt plea against the human cloning of backup dancers.
Awful.
Anyway, the length to which I was using my partner’s fluency in Spanish as a crutch for almost every human interaction is only now dawning on me. My failure to understand basic instructions has varied in its results - from mild embarrassment to frustrating waste of times. I have no excuse here; Spanish is not just spoken by a billion goddamned people, but also by a huge number of Americans and a large number of my company’s new employees (particularly in the tree nurseries). To say nothing about the whole ass part of my family that hails from the DR (and now Miami) that speak or spoke it as their primary language their entire lives. These folks went to some effort to teach me and failed, with my 14 year old lack of motivation principally to blame.
The last time I did any real international travel I barely had internet and translator apps were mostly trash. Now they are Pretty Good and my plan just gives me data in almost any country. When I get around to this next maybe we’ll have gone all Star Trek but I doubt it. If anything, I’m pretty bearish on tech actually delivering us a good solution here. Not that we need more ways to start wars.
