New York, New York

That's right folks, we were in the Big Apple for about a week - sorry we didn't have the chance to hang out. If you saw the post below, you'd know why.

It was definitely interesting going back there, even though it'd only been about 3 months since we left.

There were a bunch of things that stuck out in my mind as part of the culture-shocking. Here's two of them:

First, there is nothing like drinking water straight from the tap. Down here, we use purified water (delivered weekly in big jugs) for absolutely everything from drinking to tooth-brushing to cooking. It's just such a luxury to walk over to the sink and fill up a glass of water (or put my mouth under the tap, as I'm wont to do). I really didn't miss the feeling of "damn...no more water and there's no where to buy any now, so I won't be drinking anything until morning..." or kicking myself for rinsing my toothbrush off in the sink, rather than with the bottled water. I mean, I did have typhoid and all, and they did tell me that even just that little bit of water from the sink could have caused it...

Second (and this is an interesting one) is the total lack of diversity in Zacatecas, if not all of Mexico.

I mean, you walk around New York City and you see someone from literally everywhere. Every color, every accent, every everything (not to mention all their food too...mmm). Here, we are the diversity. Everyone is Mexican and us gringos provide all the "different" there is to see. Of course, I am discounting to some degree the huge variety of different peoples in Mexico - there's a lot of indigenous people here - but it just seems like we're the ones who look different.

Other things: english, while strange to hear in Zacatecas and definitely worth turning around to see who's talking, is common in many neighborhoods in NYC. It's rarely worth turning around.

Celebrities in New York I saw: Mario Batali with his trademark orange crocs and Chelsea Clinton, whom we sat next to at a restaurant.

Bagels, pizza, coffee, vegetables, etc. Yes. Yes. Yes.

We walked through the farmer's market in Union Square the other day and one thought kept coming to me. If there's no typhoid in any of the produce, where does the excitement come from?? I mean, without that risk every time you take a bite, is eating even fun? I hope I'm not ruined forever on food that doesn't carry at least a small chance of getting me violently ill.