I go to Europe in less than 2 weeks.
This week was crunch week. But now, paper submitted, presentation done, and I spend the next two weekends, leaning back and listening to others presentations before jetting off to Europe.
Word on the street is that we find out about acceptance into the program early June, but we shall see. When I started looking at this program there were 3 “stackable” certificates, Sustainable Cities, Sustainable Food Systems, and Environmental Policy & International Development. They have sinced dropped Sustainable Cities. And I thought I’m set on food, this is where my heart and my passion lie. But… this paper. For those of you who haven’t been forced to hear me talk at length about- I explored Mexico’s attempted GE corn ban and the USMCA. Trade policy is fascinating. Horrifying. These agreements are wild in their specificity, but also the amount of terrain they cover, while only considering economic impact. And sure they all have nods to safety, health & environmental measures, but you have to prove those exceptions to open trade. The grounding philosophy is that open trade is good. And if you think it’s not in some arena, here are the hoops you have to jump to demonstrate that your citizens’ health (or whatever) should come before trade for each and every potential exception you want. And you could still get sued. I suppose its obvious how we got here, but damn, it was eye opening. In no way does it reflect a value someone would actually say outloud (there are notable exceptions probably…)
And it’s making me wonder if really I’m more interested in policy and development.
Choices. I’ve started a massive spreadsheet of the entire catalogue of courses for the degree, cross referenced by the certificate requirements. So far I’ve narrowed to twice as many as I need to get my degree and given that they cost a pretty penny, I don’t think we’ll be doing that. I think the most surprising thing has been how much economics actually interests me. You have to choose at least one class from these different disciplines (health, social, etc) and I’m most overloaded in economics.
After wrapping up all the things on Saturday, I headed to Fran’s for a b’day party that merged with a party some of her book club crew and maybe was also a housewarming? I don’t know. Either way they rented out the rooftop which has a stunning view. You can even see the lit up ferris wheel in Chapultepec. It was a really fun.
The group I wound up with was mostly from Fran’s writing club. Maya, who actually took my parents and I on a tour, Mariana, Arturo, Carrie, Mila, and I first had a laugh about the signage in the building. For some time there’s been these signs imploring people not to throw things off the roof. They’ve really upped the ante and let us know that a dog had been injured by a cigarette butt, which left me with more questions than answers. Maya is now writing a short story from the point of view of the cigarette butt. We had a riveting conversation about what good naked and bad naked are and whether too much comfortability ruins relationships. And then we did karoake till we got yelled it. I got back home around 1:30am and crawled into bed gratefully.
Sunday I quite blissfully did almost nothing. I successfully went to the farmer’s market. I bought chicken. I took Leo for a walk and I read. It felt weird. Ok, I actually also wound up working a little.
The drawdown in federal funding has meant a lot of contract partners are looking twice at what they can cut or curtail and one of my programs is ending at the beginning of July due to this. Which means there is work to be done and staff to be met with. It’s going well so far actually, but has not been pleasant. I feel like I’ve got this homestretch of checklists before my vacation, closing out school was a big one, but I’m not quite there yet at work in terms of leaving myself in a good position to come back to (even as I write it that feels like a joke).
Tacos of the Week: Tacos Juan
This is Mexico City chain that recently opened a location on Alvaro Obregon, right across from Leo’s school. I ordered a taco norteño and a taco de picaña with rib eye. The former bears a close resemblance colorwise to pastor, but, while found everyone, pastor is a Mexico City taco and could never been described as northern. They were both good, but slightly undersalted. The salsa selection was impressive, but only a few were actually stand out. Solid and close if I want a trompo without a line.
Year One Project 
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