Field Trip to the East Side

Very early last Saturday, we met a friend on the east side of town -- the Neza municipality, if you know these parts. There aren't any high-rise, shiny glass buildings or anything of brand name. What you'll mostly find are simple cement homes housing the family business: snack shops, comida corrida restaurants, and car shops. Brilliant, I think, to live and work in the same place! The original work-from-home scheme. It's the way many Mexicans live but a world in which we know so little about living in our foreigner-friendly neighborhood. So, when the opportunity arises to see a different face of Mexico, I welcome it. Plus, you never know what fantastic food finds you might encounter.

We needed our car checked, and if there's one really good thing about the east side, it's the abundance of men who know how to fix cars. Even at 8 am on a Saturday morning, when there wasn't much going on in a usually crowded and vibrant area such as Neza, there were men everywhere fixing their cars. Oh, and if you ever wondered where the microbuses/peseros (small, green buses that terrorize the city) are maintained (they're maintained, you ask?!?), just go to Neza and take a look. Unfortunately, besides car guys and carts selling tamales and atole, I didn't get to see much. I think the real shenanigans start in the evening when the sun goes down.

This photo I took in Neza is something of a cultural curiosity to me. I've seen it many times before in various parts of the city -- the lack of attention to spelling. On you-can't-take-it-back permanent signage, no less. As a teacher, it makes me wonder how much schools here stress spelling?? We are sticklers for it in the US. I recognize the difficulty in distinguishing between v and b, but seriously, c'mon people, fabor?

By golly, these things do get repaired sometimes. Photo taken from the blog El Analfabeta, where the caption reads, "Pesero - Pequeño autobús que no cumple con ninguna regla de seguridad." ("Pesero - Small bus that doesn't comply with any security measures.") I love the thrill, but it's a miraculous feat to step off these alive.