On Monday I ordered my breakfast en español for the first time. They were like “¿en inglés o en español?” and i said “no”, then i said “quiero huevos divorciados y café con leche, porfa “ and they said “¿picante?” and i said “síííííí”! an exciting time, for me. I got sunburned drinking tequila from a pepsi bottle sitting on a stone circle around a gigantic dry fountain. I looked like a little raspberry. a big raspberry, i guess.

I canceled my trip to Monterrey. turned out cheaper to stay in a fancy apartment for the last few days and get a ticket to a different festival right here in CDMX than getting the internal flight and Monterrey hotel. Monday was also when i finally got my elotes. A somewhat stressful experience, worth it to be covered in tajin and mayonnaise like the girl from club de cuervos.

The phrase i say the most is “lo siento”. Next most is “todo bien”.

When I was second in line for elotes, the person before me let the cobhandler struggle to find a 5 peso coin in her apron for like 3 minutes. She had to resort to borrowing one from another vendor. That other vendor then stood right beside me watching my face when it was my turn. Feeling pretty crowded, i failed to understand two very simple things, which were essentially “¿negro o blanco?” and “25 pesos”. Eventually we sorted it out, but i only had a 50 peso note and i didn't want her scrounging around in her apron again so i handed it to her and took the corn and said “todo bien, lo siento” and ran away.

Came out of my hotel room Tuesday to find a maid and a handyman trying to break in together. They had my door lock open on the floor, batteries out. When i opened the door we all were stunned for a moment. i said “hola” and we all started laughing. i offered the international sign for “i was having a nap” followed by the international sign for “it’s all yours” and ran away.

it’s weird that they don't have "no molestar por favor" signs for the rooms at this hotel; it’s weird that both of the times that i've been in the room during the day and they've come to clean they've been surprised and confused that i am here; it’s weird they assumed that when the door didn’t open for them that it was broken rather than that it was locked from the inside. feeling like the first person to ever come to Mexico city and not speak spanish, feeling like the first person to ever come to México city and take a nap in their hotel room during the day. neither of these things can be true ✅, but…

Met Simon Legg for a coffee on Wednesday. we walked around the perimeter of the Plaza de la Constitución (edit: i've been informed by jimena that i should be calling this place the Zócalo) the Zócalo where Bluetooth simply stops functioning. Wifi doesn’t work well there either. So far while getting coffees my name has been transcribed “chi”, “qui” and “chip”. maybe i will have it changed to chii.

On Thursday i watched some health workers protest in demand of the correct protective gear from the Dirección General de Servicios de Salud Pública de la Ciudad de México, Jorge Alfredo Ochoa Moreno. One of the signs said “we demand our 2021 uniforms”, i guess this has been a problem for a while.

Walked through a Catholicism mall of some kind. Saw a guy walk right through it smoking a cigarette and then when he got out the other side he put his mask on before stepping onto the street and throwing the cigarro on the floor.

There are toilets everywhere in CDMX, unlike London, though they cost $5. I’ve been told that part of the reason there are no toilets (and bins) in City of London is that they don’t want the IRA putting bombs in them. I try to remember when i am diabetically moments from bursting that it is the fault of my ancestors for invading ireland.

Feeling so disconnected from everyone around me makes the smallest moments shared feel so grand. walking behind a man, and we both reached out at once to touch a metal bench that was roasting in the sun, wondering how hot it was. i whispered “yo también”

It’s so hard to get small money. I changed my blog url. I can’t really choose between chee.club, chee.news, chee.party and chee.party. currently they all work and redirect to chee.party.

Checked out of hotel 1 and into hotel 2 on Friday. The new place is huge. it has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a kitchen and the kitchen has a gas stove (¡¡¡el horno!!!) and a coffee maker machine and a refrigerator. It's very cute, and warm. I made a lot of good meals. I hope i am back in the mood to cook again when I get home on tuesday. I look forward to making enchiladas de mole, and elotes.

On Saturday morning i learned the immaculate conception is when mary was conceived and is not the virgin birth.

I started thinking about that time in january 2020 that i had the worst flu of my life and couldn't breathe properly and took 13 days off work, and then my ex caught it from me and had to come home from work because he couldn't breathe. and then how a few months later i noticed my feet and hands getting numb sometimes which turned out to be diabetes. and how longboy covid increases your chances of getting diabetes threefold.

At the festival i cried the whole time Snow was on stage. I cried and sang along and danced a little. I was so dehydrated when she got off and I wandered and wandered.

They underestimated the popularity of the battery rental stand, and so the very beautiful people there spent their whole night disappointing people. when i was 2nd in line, a girl in a yellow paisley bandana in front got a bad batería and then joined the back of the queue like an absolute sweetheart. i didn’t notice at first then i was like WTF darling you shouldn’t be punished for a bad battery and told her to get back in front of me. moments later she got a battery with a 3 light charge. I would never get more than a 1 light battery, i would never get more than 2% charge from the 1 light batteries with faulty cables they gave me. I will never be polite again for as long as i live. I had a lovely time in the line for the battery stand. I made great friends at the Fiesta Batería.

i hope i never forget the guy at the entrance to the PLUS area who helped me when i was disoriented; i hope i never forget the girl with mickey mouse hair behind the bar at the raised platform area, or the fella there too; i hope i never forget the people who were kind to me.

The festival was in Parque Bicentenario which is very, very beautiful; all full of trees (some of which i tasted), and cactuses and hills and it was beautiful. It has a chinampa, a lake, an orchid garden... for some reason there are these little super-steep stone ramps for getting between the areas and at the precipice each time i thought “i’m not going to make it”.

Towards the end of the festival i was standing with 5 lads all called Chris, they were passing around a bag of coke and we were watching Wu-Tang Clan. I set my drink down and walked away. I wandered over towards the pink stage and sat down on the grass. Somebody sat down beside me. I’m not clear on what happened next but soon we were sitting with our legs entangled looking each other right in the eyes and talking very rapidly, very excited. She would say she would be going to find her friends, but instead we would sit there with one another and talk and talk and talk. Arca was on stage, who we both wanted to see, but we continued to sit there and talk to one other. She gathered herself together and got up and went to “check it out”. She said she’d be back and i said OK. shortly after, i gathered myself together and got up and said my farewell to her, to the crowd. I started to walk away but found myself standing face to face with her again. My throat was very dry. We went to a bar, I asked if they had pulque. I got two beers. We walked and talked, we met her friends for a moment and then we walked and talked some more and met more of her friends for a moment and walked and talked and walked and talked some more. We went to A$AP Rocky. talked and talked. we left the parque together and walked and talked and talked and talked. We held hands for a little, it felt natural, it just happened. We sat outside talking until like 5am. We got a taxi together, it left me at mine and took her to hers. She told me “i did not miss arca.” and “i did not miss my friends”. I told her “it was so nice to finally meet you”, and she said “finally, exactly”, and i will miss her.

On Sunday I read Valeriya’s tarot and then slept for hours. so dehydrated. you know how your body temperature is raised during a hangover? and the dehydration? these are less fun even than normal in the Spring climes of México city. i slept a lot. I’ll be flying home tomorrow and back to work on Wednesday, though i did just pour michelada all over my computer and break it so that’s a shame. Tomorrow I’m going to try to go to a bar near that girl’s old high school and drink pulque. She wrote down about it in my notebook.

I’ve made a savings pot called “Return to CDMX.”

It's good that the world didn't end.