Hockey Day

Eng:Yesterday, Nosy and I went to see our little brother "el Enano"'s hockey team training, at one of the few ice skating rink in Mexico City.

Esp:Ayer, Nosy y yo acompaniamos a nuestro hermano menor "el Enano" a su entrenamiento de hockey, en uno de las pocas pistas de hielo que existe aqui en Ciudad de Mexico.


Eng:For those who don't know much about Mexico City, maybe it's hard to imagine that if it is possible ice skating in Mexico because of it's tropical inspiration.

Esp:Para los que no conoce a Ciudad de Mexico puede ser dificil imaginar que es posible patinar sobre hielo en Mexico ya que el imagen general de este pais es mas tropical.

Eng:Disappointing this "tropical paradise Mexico" image, here in the city there is a season which gets quite cold and could reach to 1℃ (sometimes snow as well at some part). Taking advantage of this cold season, from several years ago the government of Mexico City set up an ice skating rink, from December until the second week of January. The service is all free, including shoes rent, and people seems like enjoying that sensation of sliding above ice.

Esp:Traicionando a esta tipica imagen, ciudad de mexico hay epoca que hace mucho frio y puede llegar alrededor de 1℃ ( hasta nieve en algunas partes ). Aprovechando esta epoca de frio desde hace algunos anios el gobierno de la ciudad instala una pista de hielo temporal en Zocalo, la plaza central de la ciudad, de diciembre hasta unas primeras semanas de enero. El servicio es totalmente gratis, incluso alquiler de los patines, y la gente parece que disfruta de la sensacion de deslizar sobre hielo.

Eng: The ice rink where el Enano's team always trains is located at south part of the city called San Jeronimo, upper-middle residence zone.
And here in this rink, they proudly have the national team of Mexico. Inside of the rink, there are some showcase for their uniforms, photos, cups, plates, medals etc., the history of hockey in Mexico.

Esp:La pista que entrena los equipos de hockey queda en el sur de la ciudad, una zona que se llama San Jeronimo, una colonica de clase media-alta,
Y orgullosamente aqui en esta pista tiene el equipo de la seleccion mexicana. En la pista hay una seccion mostrador de sus uniformes, las fotos y copas, escudos, medallas etc., los registros de la historia de hockey en Mexico.










Eng:Once we enter the rink we felt different type of colness to the one we are used to feel in the city. The air of north, of the ice, that coldness which penetrate into the center of your bone.
Nosy and I made our place at the bench, take out ipod so that we can add our background music while enjoy seeing their hockey training.

Esp:Al entrar a la pista se sentia un frio muy diferente al que se siente en la ciudad, un frio de norte, de hielo, ese firo que se mete hasta el centro tu hueso.
Nosy y yo nos sentamos en las bancas de ver, sacamos ipod y nos pusimos a escuchar nuestra musiquita mientras veiamos entrenar los chavos.


Eng: Everyone have the uniforms of their favorite team, coming and going full speed like penguins in the water, which made the rink looks very colorful.
Everything was not "Mexico", but very "gringo". maybe because of the silence or the emptiness which ice could make you feel... Suddenly we felt if we were in a rink at some small town in the US, if we were in some american independent movie.

Esp:Todos traian los uniformes de sus equipos favoritos, y iban y venian a toda velocidad como unos penguinos en agua, y la pista se veia toda colorida.
Todo era nada "mexico", era muy "gringo". Tal vez por este silencio o vacio que te hace sentir hielo... De repente sentiamos como si estuvieramos en alguna pista de cualquier pueblito pequenio de Estados Unidos. Sentiamos como en alguna pelicula gringa independiente.

happy neighborhood at south DF

The other day, my Nosy and i found very nice neighborhood at south part of the city.

The houses around there are small but each one are painted so colorful and most of them have small gardens with trees and flowers uniquely accommodated and look very cozy.

Every division looks similar size of space and every houses seems to have basically similar design on ground level, but the interesting thing is that people live there arrange their houses such a unique way, constructing other part of house and painting as they want.









And the other thing which i like very much about this area is that there are lot of street which don't have access for vehicles. I think that why i felt lot of peace and happy energy there.





We saw kids coming out from a school around there. Parents looked very happy and less stressed than other part of the city. They don't have to worry about their kids running across the street and hit by car or something.





It was very nice day, after such a lot rain a day before, with shinny blue sky and clear air, and this new discovery in the city made us again very happy!!

Mexico City, sorounded by mountains

Mexico City is surrounded by some volcanic mountains.
Ixtaccíhuatl, Popocatépetl, Ajusco...etc, most of them are over 5000 meters, quite high indeed!!
However, it's very rare to see them clearly from the city because of its high level air contamination.

It was the christams day when we saw them so clear...





I don't know why but it makes me feel proud to realize that i am sorrounded by such high mountains.

I love to feel them closer.

Mog

Eng:This afternoon, Nosy and i just discovered very nice cafe around Roma area in DF called "Mog".

Esp:Esta tarde Nosy y yo descubrimos un restaurante/cafe que nos encanto en la Roma, DF.




Eng:It's runed by some japanese alternative guys and serves Asian food, not only typical japanese but also east asian taste food.
Maybe these kind of food/restaurant are not such a surprise at most of mulit cultural cities in the world, like NY, Vancouver, Berlin, or even in Tokyo. However in Mexico City there are only two restaurant serves east asian food, like thai, vietnamese etc, and neither are such casual as Mog.

Esp:Es un cafe/restaurante que maneja unos japoneses muy alternativos. Ofrece comida asiatica, no solo las tipicas japonesas sino tambien de asia del este como Thailandia o Vietnam.
Este tipo de comida/restaurante no es una gran sorpresa en las ciudades muliculturares del mundo como Nueva York, Vancouver, Berlin o hasta en Tokyo. Sin embargo en DF habia solo dos restaurantes que ofrece comida de asia del este, y ninguno de los dos es tan casual como este.


Eng:So we are very happy to discover this cafe to enjoy this kind of food.

Esp:Asi que nos hizo muy feliz decubrir este cafe para disfrutar de este tipo de comida que nos hacia falta en la ciudad.


Eng:But what we like most is we felt if we were in some alternative cafe in Tokyo. It's decoration, it's atmosphere, and there were two japanese waitresses and the owner( looks like...) dressed very "tokyo" but "underground"... These details really made us forget that we are in Mexico.

Esp:Lo que mas nos gusto fue que nos sentiamos si estuvieramos en un cafe alternativa en Tokyo. Su decoracion, su atmosfera, y habia dos meseras japonesas y el duenio (eso se nos parecio...) vestidos muy "tokyo" pero de "underground"... esas detalles nos hacia olvidar que estabamos en Mexico.



Eng:This is a plate of "Thai Lunch" combo, rice noodles with peanuts taste sauce served with salad and "okara" paste.

Esp:Este es el plato principal de "Thai Lunch" combo, fideo de arroz con salsa de cacahuate, servido con ensalada y pasta de "okara".



Eng:Combo includes a bowl of tom yam kung soup. yum yum...
all these for 85 pesos, about 7 USdls.

Esp:Combo incluye un plato de sopa tom yam kung que es la tipica de Thailandia. yum yum...
todo esto por 85 pesos. nada mal no?



Eng:And we also order our favorite dessert from east asian area, tapioca with coconut milk. This one was a master piece!!!

Esp:Y tambien pedimos nuestro postre favorito de asia del este, tapioca con leche de coco. Este si estaba de mundial!!!!!!



Eng:Apparently, will be back there soon, very soon...

Esp:Es aparente que apareceremos pronto por ahi en este rumbo, muy pronto...

Fantastic Mr. Fox

My Nosy and i always make our "must list" of what to do and where to visit when we travel, inspired from our favorit music, movies, tv programs, urban rumor, many blogs etc.

On the top of the list we made when we went to NY on last December, we put "go to see Fantastic Mr. Fox". This was one of the most important purpose of our trip this time.

Fantastic Mr. Fox: Based on Roald Dahl's book, directed by our most favorite film director in the world, Wes Anderson, director of Royal Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic with Stieve Zissou, Rushmore, and Bottle Rocket.

I'm not going to talk about the story here cause i am not a critic and i believe that it's better to see it yourself. I can only talk about our experience with this movie...

Though we couldn't make it, the original plan was to be present at the day of theatrical release in US with lots of Wes movies fans, surely had dressed up and act like each personality of Wes's movies.
Instead, we decided to go to a matinee to enjoy our most expected movie with less people in the theater.

I don't know how to express the impression of the movie...

Everything was just too "us".

We both felt an indescribable pleasure welling up inside us during the movie, and when without say anything we both knew that we haven't got this magnific sensation for a long time which a movie can give you. And it was just nice back to feel it.

Just a day before we were going to see the movie, when we were walking down the 5th Ave, accidentally we had some nice encounter with these guys from the movie.

Here are some photos of those guys.





They live in some show windows of an apparel shop at 5th Av, escaping from the movie...



also those bad guys...



and do their party!!!





their food looks yum yum....





wait, the rabbit chef looks like someone... let's see closer...



a chef with these orange croocs... mmm

it's Mario rabitt Batali!!!!!!!!!!!