this picture is worth about 400,000 people!

i need a t-shirt that says something like: i survived the line to get into the frida kahlo 100th anniversary exposition in mexico city´s palacio de las bellas artes and can live to tell you about it.

yes, this picture is for real.
yes, those are people and not ants.
and yes, i was one of the first people to get into the museum.

after hearing from my cousin, a painter here in guadalajara, that mexico city was hosting the largest, most complete exposition on my favorite feminist-mexican-surrealist artist, frida kahlo, i knew that i had to make the 6+ hour bus ride to go see it in person. sure, mexico city is one of those places that even mexicans don´t like to venture into, but somehow that heightened the adrenaline for this adventure. my uncle forewarned me that the lines had made international news, so i was aware that it might easily take 3-5 hours to even get in.

but regardless, the mission was on.
saturday (the second to last day of the exposition) morning we arrived in mexico city and quickly made our way to the palacio de las bellas artes at 7:15. there in line, i left my accomplice, stephen, to hold my spot in line as i went in search of some coffee and pan dulce. we took turns holding our invaluable spot in front of the museum and of course made friends with our neighbors. although we were over 3 hours early, the people ahead of us were there at the front door at 5am, so this experience as you could have imagined was pretty bonding. in fact, i think it put waiting for the coveted iphone to shame! there were literally thousands of people (just take another glace at the picture)-i think the news reported that there were upwards of 400,000 people on that one day, so the fact that stephen and i got inside within the first group felt like we had won the lottery!

there were snack vendors and police men, museum security guards and art fanatics. one sleazy new yorker, tried to offer us money to let him and his wife in line with us when there were clearing thousands of people behind us. proudly i can testify that we didn´t give into his offer albeit he did laugh that we actually considered it a moral matter about letting him cut in. and even if we had, we would probably have been arrested if we had given in. so yeah, one can say, frida kahlo is kinda a big deal!

after all this, i feel like i´m a part of history. i haven´t really any pictures to show you what i actually saw when i was in the museum, but i can tell you it was pretty awesome. the best i can offer you is a picture of a door that has her picture on it and a couple of postcards i picked up at the gift shop. sometimes seeing is believing. but even if that were the case, a picture is worth more than a 1,000 words.

3 things.

1. making friends that are counselors=free therapy
2. surrealism= artistic sarcasm
3. public transportation: not always safe, but will promise to at least take you for a ride.

1st anniversary.

today marks the first anniversary of the passing of my grandfather (¨abuelito toño¨). he goes down on the top of my list of the coolest, most interesting, good-hearted people of all time. okay, out of people that i have actually met in real life.

today included a list of the normal´s but ended with a family reunion/mini-feast of tamales and desserts, food and fellowship: 2 of my abuelito´s favorite things.

later tonight, as i was online, some time after midnight, i noticed my abuelita sitting down journaling something while seated on the couch. she told me that she was writing her ¨tres cosas, piensamentos, recuerdos¨. in other words, she said that she started writing 3 things down in a journal. 3 things that happened during the day. a memory, an adventure, an unexpected detail. a complaint even...so that she could remember....memory: something that i take for granted.

she inspired me. and with that, i actively decided not to wait until i couldn´t rely on my mind/memory, and would start today, with my 3 things. so with that said, when i actually remember, i will actually post my 3 things for the day with that simple title. you can decide in which category they fall into, whether good or bad. just know that i´m making an effort to actually remember them.

so my first edition of 3 things:
1. uncle ronnie left for dallas
2. zucchini bread
3. 1st anniversary

sunday is for tequila.

tequila, to most of the alcoholics out there is just a drink. it´s also happens to be a little town about 45 minutes away from guadalajara which is the birthplace of my ¨abuelita¨. we started off our daytrip at the ¨toma¨or natural spring waterfall located down the mountainside just past the village where, what-do-you-know, tequila was first invented.

after our swim at the pool at the base of the natural spring, my mom and aunt, with the aid of my dad, built a hickory fire to cook ¨carneceria¨or this amazing beef steak which guadalajara is famous for...and my uncle is still trying to convince me that is really just horsemeat, which if it is, well i say, i could definitely eat more horse.

anyways after our grilled feast and siesta (another thing i advocate to be observed in american culture), we went int0 town, got some homemade ¨paletas¨(popcicles) and i got some tequila icecream (2 things that should spend more time together). from there we headed to the jose cuervo factory, where those of us of age and interest, so a small demographic (just my sister, angie, and my brother´s friend, stephen, and myself) went on the tour. touristy, perhaps, but i can say that i now know how tequila is made and have now tasted the process along the way its made (delight numero dos for the day)-2 important keys for a successful life, maybe not. but a memory to savor.

so the next time you come visit guadalajara and you want to do something ¨educational¨, take my lead and go to tequila. drink some tequila. and love some tequila.

beka vs. the ¨vinagrilla¨

it´s a good thing that i can´t post pictures on this blog...yet. anyways you probably would think that i photoshopped the image since this thing, otherwise known in spanish as a ¨vinagrilla¨, looks like something from an nightmare. so let me describe it: it´s a 5 inch scorpion with 2 large horns and atenae and i´m convinced that it roams around, lurking to find people like me who are deathly scared of eight-legged anythings.

anyways, this thing followed me into the my grandmother´s laundry room and literally cornered me as i was screaming for someone to come rescue me. (it wasn´t a good day for wearing shorts and flip-flops!) finally, my seemingly fearless aunt, being a vet and kind to even the smallest creatures, trapped it in a tupperware container...yeah, because the little guy was thrashing its stinger at me not because it wanted to sting me but rather because it was scared of me. right!

anyways, there´s a happy ending for this villain:
she and my mom drove in a car the next day for an hour and set it free in the country. talk about pro-life. i say, if it can kill you, you´re allowed to kill it.

delayed flights and all that jazz.

the upside to delayed flights is that there is an extended opportunity to meet some (hopefully) interesting people who share at least 2 things in common with you: a.) they´re going to the same destination; b.) they, too, are going to be late. sure, i´m no stranger to the occasional late flights, but for some reason waiting for this flight was an especially entertaining one. just imagine little kids corralling together and rioting the flight attendants. ok, but instead of little kids, think about grown adults rioting, in spanish...yeah, it was all fun and games until they brought out a police force and started to escort people out. but by the midnight, we were finally on board and were on our way to mexico!


although joe and i bonded early on, sometime after hour 3 of our wait, it wasn´t until we were in line waiting to report our lost baggage that elio, a fellow new yorker finally started up a conversation with me. although i couldn´t tell if he was hitting on me, all i knew is that we had one thing in common: it was 5:30 in the morning and american airlines had officially lost our bags. anyways, he was a nice cuban guy with dreds who happened to be in mexico teaching at a music conference and to perform at this club. did i mention that he´s a jazz musician? brie would have been impressed.


well, long story, hopefully short(er)...


he called to see if i ever got my lost luggage, yes, our original connection. and asked if i was coming to the show, which i did, with my uncle and his girlfriend. i felt like a chaperon but it was fun and cultural and yes, a little smokey too. but in the end, we all had a fun and i even got a little shout-out from the stage.


so my new friend, he has a website, and you feel like some good jazz, check it out at http://eliovillafranca.net/ or go see him play live sometime. then again, he lives in nyc, so maybe you already have.

i´ve discovered the NEW biggest threat to our airport security.

it brings both a smile and a furrowed brow to my face when i recall my newest encounter with the law, more like the airport security at newark this past monday. as you might note from the picture i have generously enclosed, that the band on gels, liquids, or aerosol containers has now carried over to include boycotting sauces-YES, my organic apple sauce to be exact.

call me crazy, but when did apple sauce become the biggest threat to our airport safety? let me just say that my guffawing response didn´t go over so well with the big, burly security officer who quickly escorted me out with his plastic gloves carrying my seemingly innocent container of individually packaged apple sauce....yeah, good thing i stopped mid-sentence or who knows if they would have even let me get on my international flight...let me just say that one of my fellow passenger friends wasn´t so fortunate on our connection flight, but that is a whole different story, along with the fact that my bags got lost too.

a brief introduction.

for those of you who know me, you know that i am a person of many words....and although you discreetly roll your eyes when i would famously utter the words: long story short. i know that you do your best to listen, but now i have found a better, more efficient way to keep you posted, literally and figuratively, on the happenings of my random adventures on this path called life.

this time, you can tune in when you like. and anwser that lulling question: wait, where is beka again? and now, my roommates can be kept abreast on what i´m up to, since apparently i´m not always the best at keeping even them, in the know. sorry guys. now you know what to do when people asked you what i´m up to.

i, therefore, unofficially dedicate this blog to torey shearer. a dear friend who encouraged me to start a blog since these next couple months i´ll be all over the place, on this journey figuring out what i´m suppose to really be doing in this thing called life. don´t worry, i won´t be trying to be overly deep or profound...just keeping you in the know and sharing my antidotes and my thoughts along the way. feel free to share your thoughts.