Category Archives: personal

Ciudad de México en septiembre 2023

Week 43, 2023
Turku, Finland

It has been a long time since I wrote in this blog.

Today I activate myself to write here, because it is the most suitable space to share my world to the people I care about and are distributed across our amazing planet. Thinking particularly, those of you who do not know Mexico.

From week 34 to 38 I was in Mexico. My mom needed some support. Then, my time was busy at home. I didn’t even have time to see my generational friends.  However, the most important thing is that mom started to recover ??. In this blog post I share some visual highlights of my time back home, which is not tourism, but daily life.  I organize the photos in four categories:

  1. My neighborhood
  2. Food
  3. Daily life – errands
    1. Metro and Downtown Mexico City
    2. Driving and Parking
    3. Church
    4. Hospitals and medical services
  4. Daily life  – grocery shopping

Let’s start by fling to Mexico City. A sign, at least for me, that I am reaching “Aztec land” is when I am reaching Mexico City’s international airport, Benito Juarez, which it is in the middle of the “town”.  The ocean of lights is just something unique. 

Reaching the international airport Benito Juarez in Mexico city

1. My neighborhood

Mexico city is a big metropolis. When possible, you do your activities in the area where you live. In my case, I grew up in Colonia del Valle and during my time there, I was mainly in this area of the city or in the hospital where my mom is treated. The hospital is in the alcaldía Tlalpan.  Here a couple of links of the area of the city where I grow up: link 1 and link 2. Below photos of what I could see almost everyday.

A view of the city within the city

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Walking in the neighborhood

City birds and their facilities

Park for all to enjoy

What surprised me the most during this visit is to realize how many houses, which I saw as a child, now are turned down and instead there are building buildings.  The city keeps growing.
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2.Food

Mexican traditional cuisine was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO. For me, to share about Mexican food is challenging, because in my opinion all our senses should be involved. Additionally, I am not an expert and I do not know how to clarify certain ingredients which I only have seen in Mexico.

However, in this post, I will share food that I ate.  For example,  each time we were at the hospital, we treated ourselves.  The cafeteria was/is really good. Below some photos of the dishes.

Sandwich

Sandwich 2

Enfrijoladas

On Sept. 15th, Mexicans starts the independence celebration.  Hence, it is common to find diverse dishes or desserts utilizing the independence theme in their decoration. As the following jello utilizing the colors of the Mexican flag.

Jello with the mexican colours

Also in September is quite popular and very special to eat Chiles en Nogada.  My aunt makes them DELICIOUS!

Chile en Nogada

Mexican candies in September are also a must have. We had a beautiful meal on the 15.9. but I do not have photos only from the delicious food. However I have one from the sweets:

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Also we ate at the Parroquia:

La parroquia

and some Tortas Don Polo:

Tortas Don Polo

Well, I could have photos and more photos of food….. of course plenty of fruits were also eaten 😉

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3.Daily life – errands

In this section I share random photos of daily life. During my time in Mexico, I needed to run different errands. A glimpse of those are in here.

3.1 Metro and Downtown Mexico City.

I needed to do some paperwork in downtown, which I could not do via internet. In my opinion, it is faster and more practical to go to Mexico City downtown with public transport. For me the metro is the best.  A trick, or advice, is to avoid the busy time,  even though it is busier most of the time nowadays.  I mainly travel on the female section of the metro.

Metro station

What was new for me this time, which I only have seen in Asia earlier, were the stickers on the floor indicating where to wait for the metro and leaving the space for the passengers to go down.

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To find art or culture in the metro stations is relatively easy. At least in the “old” metro stations.

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Note: things were not that empty all the time, but I try to take photos when there were not people around to respect privacy 😉

Also in this trip I took a metrobus, which now the network is bigger than the last time I was in downtown.

Parada de metrobus

Downtown is BEAUTIFUL and INTERESTING and MAGICAL in its own right.

Next photo is from the main “square” of Mexico City: el Zocalo. Behind you can see the cathedral and presidential palace is on the right. There is a Metro station below so it is easy to come out from the metro and admire this spot of the city.

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Walking in downtown Mexico City is to walk through history, a mixing of cultures and one walks having a full sensorial experience including sounds, smells, images, symbols, etc. It is just something to experience.

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In the next photo, one can see the torre latinoamericana.

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Theater of Bellas Artes:

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Reforma, el caballito:

Reforma

In downtown, shopping areas are peculiar. One find the street that focuses on particular category, e.g. of electronics, or tiles, or jewelry, or bathrooms, etc. If you are curious, yes I stop in couple of these shopping areas. ??

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3.2 Driving and parking

To go to the hospital and other errands we needed to do it by car. Traffic is crazy if I compare it to the traffic in Offenburg, Joensuu or Turku (my other hometowns I would say).  It is just not comparison, they are different worlds in our same planet.

Traffic of the first photo was when we were heading to the hospital.  Here you can see a metro station that runs at ground level.

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Each time we were heading to the hospital, we passed through the estadio azteca.

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Parking is an issue in many areas, so they are looking for different solutions constantly, even inside buildings.

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That parking place is from the following building:

Mexico City zona sur

Or those tower parking places also can be found in supermarkets:

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3.3. Church

I also visited the church where my dad is resting.  The Mexican flag is in the altar, because it is September, as I mentioned above, it is a month of “Mexico”.

Parroquia de Jesús Sacramentado

Crypts:

Parroquia de Jesús Sacramentado

I found the following sticker interesting. It reads: “United in the distance.

Actually in the service, when people access the church, they use face masks and wash the hands.

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3.4 Hospital and medical services

In my opinion, we have EXCELLENT doctors in Mexico. We also have very good public hospitals.  A challenge Mexico has, again in my opinion, there are not enough hospitals for all Mexicans. The health system requires a lot of investment.

In our case, we can can do things in public institutions, which my mom has paid through her taxes during her working life. However, we need to complement certain services with private practices. The prices of those private ones can vary.  In the following photos  I want to illustrate architecture of the hospital where my mom was operated as where her rehabilitation is. I really love the Mexican architecture, across time. One can can see  mexican murals, and in my opinion the hospital is EXCELLENT.

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Hosptial en Ciutad de México

 

Hospital en cituad de México

The people must use mask in this hospital. It is mandatory.

The photo below I found it in one of the hallways. It reads: While they said to each other “it could not be done, it was done”.

Hospital en Ciudad de México

The photo below is from another organization, which I discovered because I needed to do some studies for myself. Then, aI was guided to go to Salud Digna.It is a foundation that offers medical studies to accessible prices. Amazing service and also A LOT of people.

Salud Digna

Even that there were plenty of persons at the same time,  the service was quick and good. They also have chairs reserved for different type of groups, as below you can see sits for pregnant women.

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Finally an entrance of a private hospital. Another style.

Hospitales en Mexico

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4. Daily life  – grocery shopping

Before heading to Mexico, I was asked: what type of fish do we eat there?, for example. Which I do not have an answer for. I am ignorant to the topic.  ?  Therefore I decide to share some photos of our supermarkets and “mercados sobre ruedas“.  I will be paying more attention to those important details step by step.

Below is the first supermarket I went right after landing. There the watermelon was huge:

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Here some fruits that we will not find in Finland or Germany, for example: mamey and Tuna (Fruit no fish)

Supermercado ciudad de México

It is easy to find plenty of avocados among other fruits and vegetables:

La comer - supermercado - Ciudad de México

Supermarket fish display:

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Bakery in supermarket:

La comer - supermercado - Ciudad de México

Alcohol is also sold inside supermarkets:

La comer - supermercado - Ciudad de México

Personally, I ENJOY A LOT to buy at the “mercados sobre ruedas“. I was not able to find an article in English clarifying what are “merchados sobre ruedas”, but in brief: they are temporal market installed for one day on specific streets, where one buys closer to the producer. If you want to read more about them, here is an article in Spanish.

Mercadito sobre ruedas - Ciudad de México

I was lucky because there were still some  mangos manila (yammi ??):

Mercadito sobre ruedas - Ciudad de México

Mercadito sobre ruedas - Ciudad de México

One can also eat prepared food at “mercado sobre ruedas”. I found interesting how they keep having covid practices.

Mercadito sobre ruedas - Ciudad de México

A couple of things happen in my food-hunting trips, which were new for me.

One, I had an earthquake drill in a supermarket. To put some in context. We had very bad earthquakes on  Sept 19th in the past. So we have a National Earthquake drill on this day. At the day and time of the drill I was in a supermarket. So we were to the safe zone customers and employees. It was interesting.

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Another new things for me was to realized how many dogs, as pets, are nowadays. The number has increased so much that even supermarkets welcome them.

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The blog post is a bit long but I hope it transmits a bit of my world in a daily life in Mexico city. Missing other stuff, as we play board games each Sunday  – and some other days when possible- , cleaning the house, etc. However maybe in another post we can talk about other details ??  .

-Yop!

Pasta de salmón al horno

Week 43, 2020
Turku, Finland

Sé que este blog no es de recetas de cocina. Sin embargo, acordé con mi familia de compartirles una receta que preparé para ellos en agosto, la cual les gustó mucho.  La receta la descubrí en el app de k-ruoka: Uunilohipasta  (Nota: admito que uso mucho ésta aplicación para descubrir nuevas recetas, es EXCELENTE).  También es posible leer la receta original en la revista  de esta cadena de supermercados (k-Ruoka #9 del 26.8.-29.9.2020, pág. 41).   Ahora busco traducir la receta al español y espero la disfruten. Realmente es una receta sencilla y  deliciosa.

Ingredientes  (6 porciones)

  • 650 gramos de salmón
  • 2 cucharaditas de ralladura de limón
  • 1 cucharadita de sal
  • 1/2 cucharadita de pimienta negra
  • 2 decilitros de crema (aquí especifican la crema sin lactosa (15%) de la marca de la tienda Pirkka)
  • 1 cebollín picado (la parte de verde)
  • 1/2 taza de jugo de limón
  • 80 g (aprox. 1 dl) de queso parmesano rallado
  • 500g de espaguetis
  • Approx. 1 dl de agua que hirvió con la pasta
  • 65 grms de espinaca o rúcula

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

En la foto están todos los ingredientes de la receta y  mis herramientas de trabajo 🙂  Nota: en esta ocasión utilicé espinaca y rúcula, porque tenia un poco de las dos. 🙂

Preparación (menos de 30 min)

  1. Limpiar la superficie  y retirar la piel del salmón.

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

Nota: Lavarse bien las manos si se van a utilizar también. En mi caso usé el cuchillo, peor en ciertas areas me era mas fácil utilizar mis manos.

2.Rallar un limón

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

3. En un refractario poner el salmón. Sazonarlo con la ralladura de limón,  sal y pimienta.

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

4. Agregar la crema

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

5. Hornear a 200 grados durante unos 20 minutos.

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

Mientras tanto:

6. Cocer el espagueti en agua

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

7. Exprimir el jugo del limón

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

8. Lavar el cebollin y la espinaca (o rúcula)

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

9. Cortar el cebollin y la espinaca (o rúcula)

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

10. Ya que la espagueti está listo, guardar un poco de agua.

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

11. Sacar el salmón del horno, y cortarlo en trozos con una cuchara.

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

12. Agregar el cebollín picado (y mezclar un poco)

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

13. Agregar el jugo de limón.

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

14. Agregar el queso parmesano rallado.

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

15. Agregar la pasta escurrida.  Si es necesario y requiere mas líquido, agregar el agua que se reservó anteriormente (Nota: a mi no me ha hecho falta ). Mezclar.

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

16. Agregar la espináca o la rúcula.

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

17. Mezclar todo bien.

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

Listo para comer 🙂

Receta de Pasta de salmon al horno

¿Cómo cuidar a una begoña?

Week 15, 2020
Turku, Finland

A través de ésta publicación quiero pedir consejos para cuidar a mi begoña, y sobre todo motivarla a florecer 🙂  .  Antes de continuar,  permítanme compartir mi situación personal en el mundo de la jardiniería:

  1. No tengo el conocimiento ni la experiencia en el cuidando de plantas.
  2. Es muy frecuente que las plantas que adopto, o siembro, se me mueran 🙁  aunque trato de evitarlo.
  3. Vivo en un departamento, así que solo puedo adoptar plantas en sean capaces de vivir en macetas.
  4. En invierno, en donde vivo, los días son muy oscuros. Por ejemplo, la luz puede salir alrededor de las 9am y aprox. a las 4pm ya es de noche. En el verano casi no hay noche. Así que no puedo tener plantas que necesitan mucha luz todo el año. Aunque tengo unos focos que dicen que les ayuda, pero realmente no lo sé.

Ahora voy a presentar el caso de mi begoña. Cualquier consejo lo agradezco de antemano. 🙂

En 15 de abril de 2019, me compré esta hermosa begoña:

Begoña adoptada en 2019

Begoña adoptada en 2019

Esta hermosa begoña la coloqué en una área del departamento que normalmente tiene luz todo el año. Al mismo tiempo, nunca le llega luz directa del sol, ya que está lejos de cualquier ventana. Al parecer a la begoña le gustó el lugar, y siguió creciendo y dando flores. De hecho la peluqueé en mas de una ocasión:

Begoña floreando

Begoña floreando

El 6 de julio, la cambié a una maceta más grande y la peluqueé.

Begoña pasando por sesión de belleza

Begoña pasando por sesión de belleza

Aún que la cambié de maceta, aún floreó. Ya fué poco, y yo asumo que es porque ya estaba terminando el verano. La siguiente foto es del  la nueva maceta volvieron a salir una flores, no tantas, pero ya era el final del verano. Foto agosto 2 septiembre 7

Begoña floreando despues del su sesión de belleza en agosto.

Begoña floreando despues del su sesión de belleza en agosto.

Sobrevivió el invierno. Sus hojas siguen creciendo.

 

Lo que me inquieta es que no ha dado ninguna flor hasta ahorita.  ¿Alguna sugerencia para motivar a mi begoña a florecer?

Gracias de antemano por cualquier consejo 🙂

— Yop!

Munsteir

Week 37, 2019
Turku, Finland

On Augutst 24-31 of this year, I had the opportunity to participate in the Summer School of the UNESCO chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites. The theme of this year was: LeVERAGE ICTs for Tourism. Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism for preserving LiVing hERitAGE

It was interesting to be a participant of this Summer School series.  I only new this Summer School because I organized it last year here in Finland.

It was a rich experience to be a participant again. I think the last time I was a participant of a Summer School was 10 years ago. It was a rich and strange experience. All together.

Looking for a quote to reflect my feeling, I found this one:  “Who dares to Teach mus never cease to Learn” (by John Cotton Dana) .  Often we interpret this to keep ourselves actualizing, reading, thinking, reflecting. This is a complete truth. But it might also imply, to be a learner and have that role as well. To connect with other fellow learners independently where we are in our journey of discover. It is to go back to our return, and do not lose the ground.

It was fun to contribute in a team. Overall to see how the work of my team evolved from an idea to its complexion. See the talents of each team member, it was fascinating and a wonderful experience. To laugh, and work hard with that energy that only students have.

Perhaps I value this experience more today than earlier, because is not so often when I can say I am a full time student. Connect with others at different levels is part of the magic of life. On the other hand, I admit that each one of our life experiences and knowledge will always be with us, and therefore. Therefore, the connectivity and conversations with facilitators also increases as peers. To connect with others is a magical rainbow with some many tonalities.  I am thankful to be able to connect with my “gang” of Lugano ;- )

And luckily enough, our project might be pass over to the people of Münstair. That is awesome!

Here is the link of our website: http://senseofvalmustair.mozello.com/home/

Here is the link to the story we made, very quickly there.

 

Breakfast

Week 15, 2019
Turku, Finland

In 2018, we started to cook diverse recipes taking advantage of an options that our City Market offers (Side note: City Market is the name of our store from the chain K-market, which it is one of the Finnish chain of hypermarkets).  Next, at the beginning of 2019, following an advice of my nurse, I started to document my meals. It is a big difference to see the photos of what has eaten than to use one’s memory of what one ate. Our mind can lie to ourselves.

However today our breakfast was a BOMB of good things, and I decided to record the menu in here. The following photo shows my breakfast and below it is described.

Rich breakfast

1. Juice

The juice consisted of:

  • Approx 2 cm of ginger
  • Approx 3.5 cm of turmeric (I discovered this root recently, thanks to a indian recipe we cooked. It seems it is such a good thing to consume, you can read about it here and here)
  • 1 big carrot
  • 2 oranges
  • ½ mango

2. Berry soup

On Saturday I cooked  Finnish berry soup. Consequently, during this week it is possible to have berry soup for breakfast.  Berry soup is an excellent dish!  While aiming to write down which berries I used, I discover this website describing different types of berries.  My soup had:

  • Bilberry (we call it blueberry)
  • Raspberry
  • Strawberry

3. The mango’s bone,  which I could not be included in the juice. I think the mango was Palmer. Again, I just discover how many different mango types are available. Need to pay attention to this!

4. One fried egg

5. Two or three slides of local bread (7 vjlianleipä from Salonen ). This item is not included in the picture.

I admit, I am a lucky girl!

— cais