Latest / onefjef / Lost in Mexico City With a Dead Phone on World Cup Night

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Lost in Mexico City With a Dead Phone on World Cup Night · onefjef

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This is episode 51 of onefjef
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51. 51.
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51. That's the one.
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51. Look what it's done.
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Half 100 plus one more
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This is also CDMX Dispatch number 10, but I've decided to make this
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a full regular episode because it's chock-full of top choice content.
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Chock-full, my friends.
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So stay tuned.
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Don't change that dial.
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Don't turn that dial.
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That's what it is.
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And I hope you all are thriving.
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I hope you all are relaxed, comfortable, perhaps doing some
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yard work, perhaps driving in your car, perhaps taking a walk.
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Whatever it is you're doing, I hope that it's pleasant and that you are relaxed.
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If you're not relaxed, take a deep breath in
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Hold it and let it go
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See?
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Now you feel better.
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Moving on.
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Quick show note.
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In the last episode of the podcast, I said, quote, "It's ridiculous to
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describe things you experience," unquote
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And that's a ridiculous thing for me to say considering much of this podcast is
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me describing things that I experience or other people doing the same thing.
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So I retract that statement.
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Retract it.
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It's gone.
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Okay, good.
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World Cup fever has hit Mexico City.
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I know I mentioned it in the last episode, but since that last episode, Mexico City
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won another game against South Korea, which I actually also used to live in
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South Korea many years ago, weirdly.
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I mean, it's not that weird I guess, but kinda weird.
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I wanted to watch the w- game somewhere fun so the language school that I am
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going to arranged like a, a meetup kinda thing at a local bar here.
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It was a weird bar.
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It was in like a hotel.
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Dog Patch or something or Dog… Woof Top.
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Woof Top.
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I guess it's 'cause there's dogs inside, but not very many dogs.
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Anyway, yeah, it was fun.
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Everybody was watching the game.
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Everybody was cheering, blah, blah, blah.
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It wasn't a very exciting game, but they won the game.
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And so me and, have I mentioned Jonathan?
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So I met this German guy in my Spanish class.
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He's this 20-year-old German guy, he's a skater.
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Super interesting dude.
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So we, the two of us just decided to walk down to, th- there's a statue in the
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middle of town where everybody convenes.
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Um, I think a statu- Independence Statue, Angel of Independence Statue I believe.
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I would try to say that in Spanish, but I screw up angel.
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Angel.
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I can't do it.
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So we started walking down there, and it's crazy already.
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Like, cars are going by with flags out their window.
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People are screaming.
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And as we walk, there's more and more and more people, and by the time we
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get there it is just blocks deep.
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I mean, must've been 100,000 people there.
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And people are selling beer.
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People are selling this foam to spray in the air.
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People are walking around with like bottles of liquor and just
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pouring it into your mouth.
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Everybody's super friendly.
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They're asking us where we're from.
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Jonathan, he's got a vibe.
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He's got like an interesting haircut.
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He looks very German, so he was almost a celebrity.
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All the women, like these young women wanted to take pictures with him.
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At one point I was telling these women, "Uh, he's a famous German.
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I'm, I'm his agent, so please no pictures." It, it was super fun.
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And everybody's drinking in the street, and everybody's dancing.
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And at one point, they do this thing here, I don't know what it's called,
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maybe a reba or something, but a group of like five, six men get together
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and just start throwing people in the air for no real reason aside
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from just to throw people in the air.
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I mean, they're, it's a voluntary thing.
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So Jonathan did it, and then I was standing nearby, and before I knew
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what was happening they had me and they're throwing me in the air.
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It was absolutely an experience I'll never forget.
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The positive vibes that were going around were palpable, right?
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Palpable.
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And I'm not a huge sports fan, but anything that can bring people
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together in a unifying way and a joyful way is great by me because
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this-- everybody was friendly.
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There was no negativity.
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And I feel like in the United States when sports teams win a big championship
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or anything, in this case, the Mexico City just won a game, but it's
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the World Cup, so it's different.
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In the United States, if a sports team wins something, there's usually a, a
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burning car of some sort, or people stomping on cars, or destruction
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of property in some way or other.
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None of that here.
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The closest that I would say it got was there were a bunch of shirtless mens
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who climbed up on top of the bus station and were j-jumping off into the crowd.
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But they, they didn't seem to be hurting the bus station, so… Anyway,
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it was truly one of the most amazing experiences I've had since I've been here.
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Yeah, it was joy.
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It was so much fun.
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But eventually, you get to a point when the crowd starts to, you know, get to
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you, and that was about an hour or two in.
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I mean, we were drunk, so it, you know, it helps to be a little
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intoxicated in situations like this 'cause you can kinda go with the flow.
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It helps a lot, to be honest.
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Anyway, so we decided to, to take off.
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It was, I don't know, midnight or so, and my phone had died 'cause
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I'd been taking a lot of videos and, uh, photos and stuff, and I will put
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those on the Patreon page as well for my subscribers, patreon.com/onefjef.
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Anyway, didn't have my phone 'cause it was, it was dead, so I
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had no mapping device of any sort.
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And, you know, I know my way around Me-Mexico City pretty well, at
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least the area that I live in.
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But it was dark, I was a little drunk, and the streets here are not, like, obvious.
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Some of them just turn different ways sometimes.
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It's not a grid by any stretch of the imagination.
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So it can be a little confusing.
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There's a lot of angles, right?
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Not 90 degrees, if you catch my drift.
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So I start walking in the direction of what I thought was the right
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way to go, which as it turns out, had I just kept going straight, I
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would've been home in 15 minutes.
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But I turned right at a certain point, and I don't know why.
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I just had this impression in my head of which way to go, so
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as a result of the right turn, I ended up getting insanely lost.
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I was looking around.
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I didn't recognize anything.
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I'm like, "I have no idea where I am I wandered around for probably
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a half an hour, 45 minutes, just trying to get my bearings, and none
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of the street names looked familiar.
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I really don't know where I was.
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So eventually, like I got the genius idea to start asking people
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like, "Where is Tonalá Street?"
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And they were very helpful.
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They pointed me the right direction.
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So I just started walking in the direction, but 'cause the people who
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give me answers seemed confused, I didn't entirely trust the responses.
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I assumed they were true.
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Not that they were lying to me, just that maybe they didn't know.
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I don't know.
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Anyway, I walked in that direction 'cause that was the best thing I had at that
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point, and then I asked another person, and he said, "Okay, same direction."
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And eventually, finally, I, I get to Parque México, which is in Condesa,
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and I know my way home from there.
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So I'm like, "God bless America," or God bless Mexico or Viva México rather.
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I can get home, right?
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I was still 20 minutes from home though, and another element of this is that I
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had to pee so bad, like one of the worst times I've had to pee in my life, and
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it wasn't gonna last until I got home.
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Like I was gonna piss myself.
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Pardon me.
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Wet my pants.
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Is that better?
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If I didn't pee before I got home.
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So I'm by the park, and there's not a lot of people around, so I kind of just look
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around incognito-like, and I find a little secret spot and, uh, relieve myself.
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I, I apologize to the park.
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I apologize to the City of Mexico City, and, uh, I apologize
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to the country of Mexico.
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I did not mean to pee in your park, but sometimes these things are necessary.
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I did pee, and it was great, and then I walked home, got home at
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like 12:45, 1:00, uh, having walked like five miles or something.
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So that was exciting.
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That was exciting.
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And since that victory, like the city, maybe it's just me, but Mexico City
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has felt like it's always pretty, you know, there's always good vibes here for
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the most part as far as I'm concerned.
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It always feels like there's pretty good vibes.
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But the vibes now are fantastic.
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I just feel like positive energy in the city.
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People are happy.
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Seems like there's a lot more, um, what's the phrase?
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It's a French phrase.
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En humour?
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No.
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I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.
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Anyway, it's been wonderful, you know?
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Mexico really knows how to celebrate a victory, celebrate
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anything, let's be honest.
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They're very good at celebrating anything.
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Joy.
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Anyway, Jonathan left last Friday.
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Unfortunately, he took a 23-hour bus ride across the border to Laredo, Texas,
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where he will begin, or has begun, hitchhiking across the United States
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and to Vancouver, Canada, while spending the least amount of money possible.
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I'm Jonathan, 20 years old, born and raised in Berlin, Germany, and I'm
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currently hitchhiking through the US.
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I'm trying to go from Laredo up until Vancouver.
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The last time he was in the United States was when he was a
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kid, so he doesn't really have many, like, adult memories of it.
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So he's very excited to experience what a mess and a magic and
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whatever else the USA is right now.
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And he's hitchhiking, which I've never done.
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Actually, one time I did it when I was in college, but it was only for
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about, I don't know, uh, five minutes, and it was honestly super creepy.
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Uh, everybody's fine, but it was creepy.
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But if you're from the United States and you hear, you know, 20-year-old
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hitchhiking across the country with very little money, your first response,
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your first thought was probably danger, danger, danger, largely because I
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would suggest the media you consume portrays a country where it is unsafe
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to leave your home and strangers are to be feared and not welcomed.
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Am I right?
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I am right.
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I'm not suggesting that what Jonathan is doing is not a little bit dangerous.
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Of course it is.
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But I also know that most Americans are pretty nice and pretty
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generous if you actually talk to them, which most of us don't.
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So I told him to be careful, of course, but I think he'll be fine.
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I do.
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Anyway, I'm hopefully gonna have him on the podcast from the road at some point.
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But for now, he's sending me these short audio dispatches with his
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impressions of the United States as a hitchhiking German expat.
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So here's the first.
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Stay tuned for more.
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Quick story time before I go to bed.
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I'm very tired, and this is just a couple loose thoughts of myself about
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what I've experienced the past two days.
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So I haven't, shit, haven't really settled into my head yet.
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I haven't, can't really grasp it.
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But I love it.
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The US is hella comfortable.
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Everything can be done by car.
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Everything can be done within your little capsule, and you don't even have to
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leave your sedan or your pickup truck.
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Everything can be done conveniently within…
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Like, you live in your climatized house, go to the, I don't know,
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drive-through gas station, go to your DC in Austin, go to your tower and
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work, and then go in front of the TV.
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You may even went to fucking Target and talk to people, but all the
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places you do go you consume.
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Like, it's all places of consumption.
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It's not that different than it is back home.
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It actually isn't probab- probably.
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It's just more extreme.
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It's just more visible.
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Like, comfort is advertised to you way stronger than it is back home.
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Like, the story is sold to you way more obviously here than, and, and
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lived also than it is back home.
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It's just weird.
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I arrived in fucking Austin today, and I got picked up by an anon--
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like a automatic self-driving car.
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I think they're called Waymo cars, and I drove through a city with
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over a million people, and I didn't even saw people in the streets.
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Just people in their capsules, in their cars, going from place A to place B, going
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from work to Starbucks drive-through.
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I don't know.
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It's… And it's convenient.
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It's fun.
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I get it.
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I understand, but it also makes your world hella small.
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It makes your world hella small Like, you, you could have saw it
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all through the window of your capsule, but you never touched it.
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You never experienced it, and this life of comfort doesn't fulfill you to no extent.
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It's too comfortable.
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You have to suffer every once in a while to feel alive.
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Jonathan's also documenting his trip on Instagram.
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So if you're interested in following him and his trip, he's at, at jonathqnw.
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I'm gonna have to spell this one.
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It's at sign, of course, J-O-N-A-T-H-Q-N dot W. That's at J-O-N-A-T-H-Q-N dot W.
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Did y'all get that?
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I hope you did.
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I saw a family of rednecks today, bro, something I will
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never forget in my life, bro.
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Never.
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There was a white guy, ugly as fuck, rolled into the Road Ranger
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like, like a fucking… He was round like a donut with a T-shirt on.
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It says, "Trump Daddy." And then his, like, like, four chicks went after
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him, every, each, each and every one of them fatter than the next one, and all
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of them pregnant, and with hella kids already, and they didn't look above 30.
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Some of them looked like, like teens, like teen moms.
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Came in a rundown pickup truck.
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Nah, bro.
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But I wasn't the only one who, uh, who found that funny.
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I saw some truck drivers taking pictures of them because they looked…
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There wa- there was, there was quite something, this kind of family.
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No clothes.
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The girls were almost naked.
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Yeah, oh, another thing.
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Bro, insane, but, like, I got hit up on Instagram by motherfuckers who
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wanted to start sending me money.
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Like e- like a lot of Americans texted me.
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I got hella American Instagram, by hella, what means hella, like
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10, 15, asking me for my Instagram when I told them that story.
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They, they've been texting me like they're, they're fans, bro.
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They're fans.
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Like, one of the… Like, on my first day, I met a couple in Laredo.
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They're actually kinda cute, like a guy with his Mexican girlfriend.
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They were very nice, and I told them my story.
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We got along.
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They couldn't offer me a ride.
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They had something to do, but they said, "Well, next time if you're
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still here," blah, blah, blah.
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And he's been texting me multiple times that he, like, been thinking about me,
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and he had been reconsidering his life.
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I don't know if this is an American, like, way of Showing affection
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or just, just, or if it's an exa- exaggeration, but I… He did, it
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doesn't, it d- doesn't seem like it.
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Like, he seems hella impressed.
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It's, it's not an exaggeration.
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Like, most of the people here are very expressed, uh,
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impressed of what I'm doing.
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Never left their comfort zone, I guess, like, for real.
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They say, "Yeah, I wish I would, I would have loved to do it, but I c-
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couldn't. I can't." I guess for most of them, they, they probably can't.
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They're not… Like, I'm, I'm, uh, very aware that, like, I'm a hella privilege,
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and that makes all of this possible.
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But there have been some who definitely couldn't, but they're too frayed, afraid.
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Like, talking about being afraid, bro, today somebody came to me while
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I was sitting at this gas stop, and I asked him, "Hey, you going north?"
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He said, "Yeah." Like, he was a man, like, two heads taller than I, big-ass
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pickup truck, gun by hi- by himself, like I saw it through his pants.
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And he was like, "Nah, bro, I won't take you. Not letting no one know me."
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He said, "I, I will go inside, get a drink, but I p- probably won't thank,
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take it. You can be a murder, murderer."
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And then he went out and didn't even ta- said anything to me, just passed me.
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Like, bitch, what are you afraid for?
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I, I'm, I'm, I'm the 20-year-old motherfucker who should all be afraid.
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What are you afraid for?
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Uh, no, okay, it's not that deep
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We need to get out of fucking Dallas.
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Shit One of my Spanish teachers told me to look at the lyrics for the
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national anthem of Mexico, and I have admittedly completely been ignorant.
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I have no idea how the Mexican national anthem goes or whatever.
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I, I don't know that I could hum it.
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Not that I could… I don't think I could hum the national anthem of
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any… Well, some of them, like, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, and, like,
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Canada, da, da, da, da, da, da.
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But that's about it.
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And the United States, of course, but that's about it.
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Yeah.
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Anyway, so I looked up the lyrics, the translation of the Spanish national
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anthem, and, um, yeah, it's intense.
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Let me just read a bit for you here.
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"War, war without quarter to any who dare or to tarnish the coats of arms of
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the country. War, war, let the national banners be soaked in waves of blood.
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War, war in the mountain, in the valley, let the cannons thunder in horrid
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unison, and may the sonorous echoes resound with cries of union, liberty."
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And I'll just read one more.
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"O Fatherland, are your children defenseless behind their neck, behind
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the yoke? May your fields be watered with blood. May their foot be printed
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in blood, and may your temples, palaces, and towers collapse with horrid clamor,
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and may the ruins continue on saying, 'Of 1,000 heroes, here the Fatherland began.'"
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Wowza.
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Wowza.
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Uh, not a lot of gray area there.
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The national anthem should be called Don't Fuck With Mexico.
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That should be the title.
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Um, I don't know what the title is, but it should be Don't Fuck
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With Mexico, because we will spill your blood all over the motherland.
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Wowzers.
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It makes me wanna look into other national anthems, because,
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uh, I had no idea that national anthems could be quite that brutal
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So yeah, a little trivia for you there.
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I don't know if it's trivia, but you know what I'm saying For whatever
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reason, but I have the feeling every fucking Texan been to jail at least once.
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Just had a ride with some guy who was… I didn't figure it, he had his
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sunglasses on, but when I left the car, he just took me like five miles up
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north to the next gas station because the first, like the, the other one at
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the road rager, they didn't wanted me.
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So I asked him, "Hey bro, can you take me up?" He looked fine.
20:05
He looked like a redneck, but he looked, he was nice and fine.
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But I figured he was on hella shit.
20:11
I don't know what he was on, but he was definitely a drug addict.
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I ju- I just figured when, like he was high.
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Like when I left the car, he would offered me everything, his watch,
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every, every belongings, a knife, everything he had in his car, and
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he behaved in a very weird way.
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And then I just looked at him properly, and I figured, yeah, bro.
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And he was like, we were just within this five miles.
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He's from there.
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He just said, "Yeah, I went to school here.
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I got three nine milli- like I got shot by a nine-millimeter over there.
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And, and at this other gas station, my girlfriend used to
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work, but she's now in jail.
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Oh, by the way, I've been to jail three times as well, but I'm not a
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bad guy." He, he wasn't a bad guy.
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He was probably, probably a drug addict.
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That probably what he, what's brought him there.
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But in general, like whatever, what the fuck is going on?
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Whatever the fuck is going on in Texas, I think you get locked up pretty easily.
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Out of the past five people I talked to, three been to jail at least once, and
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one been on the road for nine months to escape jail for minor drug possession.
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What the fuck?
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Oh, if I would live here, I would take drugs as well, bro.
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That ain't no crime.
21:20
That ain't no crime About a week or two ago, a guy I knew in high
21:25
school discovered this podcast.
21:28
His name is John, and I don't think I've seen him since we
21:31
graduated about 35 years ago.
21:34
Apparently, he really likes this podcast because he's left me four
21:38
or five voicemails in the last week.
21:41
Hey, Jef.
21:42
It's John from Westlake High School, '90, '92.
21:46
Uh, saw your podcast, uh, on your Instagram and, uh, subscribed,
21:51
and I will soon be, uh, a loyal One Jef F- One Jef-ites?
21:57
Gotta, you gotta get a catchy name for your followers 'cause I'm gonna be the
22:01
king of the followers, so I need to be, like, king of the, the One Jefs?
22:05
I don't know.
22:07
Two of them were 10 minutes apart actually, and he's also liked and
22:11
commented on many of my Instagram posts and on Spotify, et cetera, et cetera.
22:17
John here.
22:19
You may remember me from Westlake High School, 1992.
22:26
Uh, just started listening to your podcast, kinda caught
22:30
up, uh, kind of binged.
22:32
Yeah, so you'll see me on your Patreon possibly.
22:37
I'm gonna be, uh, I'm gonna be the One F, one of the One Jef groupies.
22:41
So first off, I wanna be clear.
22:42
I appreciate any and all engagement with this podcast So
22:47
thank you, John, for engaging.
22:49
Secondly, though, I hope you're okay, John, because the amount of
22:54
engagement has been a bit, um, much.
22:59
Hey, Jef, this is John, um, J-O-H-N.
23:04
OneHJohn?
23:05
That's not-- That doesn't sound as cool as OneHJef.
23:07
Anyway, uh, just finished listening to podcast, and you said, uh, you
23:11
had a question at the end of it that says, uh, "Can you say I deem?"
23:15
Uh, I deem as in I re-- is, is more like I regard.
23:19
So usually, usually you need an object at the end of it.
23:23
So like I deem it, or I deem, uh, Jef's podcast as the best
23:28
podcast I've heard in a long time.
23:30
I'm not one to criticize or judge one's behavior, particularly when
23:35
that behavior is engaging with this podcast, but this level of it
23:40
makes me a little bit concerned.
23:43
Uh, in the English proper language, you should use an object when you use I deem.
23:48
But if you wanna be avant-garde or outside the norm, you can just say
23:53
like, "I deem." It makes me wonder what exactly is going on with you, John.
23:57
Like I regard.
23:59
So I'm like, I deem the universe to be, I don't know, universal.
24:05
I care about all of my listeners, and also honestly, because
24:09
I'm a little creeped out.
24:11
And I mean that in the nicest way possible.
24:13
You said you're coming back to the States, uh, for a couple of
24:17
weeks for the Fourth of July.
24:19
Um, if you get a chance, give me a ring.
24:22
Again, this is John from Westlake High School, uh, nineteen ninety-two.
24:26
Uh, my number is
24:33
Hasta luego So I've decided, in lieu of all this, to extend an
24:37
invitation to you, John, to come on the podcast and talk about this.
24:43
Not for a long time, mind you, not a whole episode, of course, but for
24:47
enough time for me to understand, and my listeners, what an obsessive
24:51
fan of this podcast is all about.
24:55
What's going on up there, as it were?
24:59
So John, if you're interested, you clearly know how to get in touch with me.
25:06
But if the rest of you don't know how to get in touch with me, you can reach me
25:09
by email at onefjefpod@gmail.com or by leaving a voicemail at 1-669-241-5882.
25:22
I need to do, like, one of those pirate shanty songs with that number, you know?
25:27
Oh, 669-241-5882.
25:33
Something like that, but a little bit more girth to it.
25:37
Anyway, let me know, John.
25:40
Up to you.
25:41
You know what they don't get here?
25:44
They don't get that I do this because I want to and not because I need to.
25:48
They don't get that I get out of my comfort zone to have fun.
25:52
They give me money.
25:53
They feel bad for me.
25:55
They buy me dinner, but they don't do this because they understand that I have fun.
26:00
It's, like, hard to imagine for them.
26:02
For most of the people, they don't understand why one shall leave
26:05
their comfort zone to have fun.
26:07
You go north by any chance, brother?
26:09
I am moving in two days.
26:11
It's quite exciting.
26:12
It's also kind of exhausting.
26:14
It's surprising how much goes into just packing two bags, although I'm
26:18
not necessarily packing two bags.
26:20
I'm leaving a bunch of stuff here in Mexico City with a friend of mine.
26:25
God bless her.
26:27
I've also had to put the apartment back together with all of the motorcycle-based
26:30
artwork and vaguely Christian artwork as well, which I won't miss whatsoever.
26:37
But I'm moving on Wednesday morning.
26:38
Well, I'm not moving.
26:39
I'm going to Cleveland, Ohio in an aeroplane, and when I come back here
26:44
in about two or three weeks, I will be moving into my new apartment.
26:49
As I'm approaching this move and this respite -- respite isn't the right
26:53
word, but you know what I mean -- from my Mexico City life, I've been thinking
26:56
about and reflecting on my last four months, three and a half months here,
27:01
and you know, it's not been easy.
27:03
This is why most people don't do things like this, because they're difficult
27:06
and people don't like to do hard things, even though it's really the
27:10
best thing you can do for yourself.
27:13
There's been very high highs and very low lows.
27:16
It's really a roller coaster, and roller coasters are fun.
27:19
Actually, no, I don't really like roller coasters, but
27:22
the metaphor is still intact.
27:24
It still works, even though I don't myself enjoy roller coasters.
27:28
I enjoy watching roller coaster videos, which is odd, isn't it?
27:31
Hmm?
27:32
Maybe it's not.
27:33
I don't know.
27:35
I like some roller coasters, just not, not so ones.
27:39
But this podcast is not about my liking or disliking roller
27:42
coasters, so we're gonna move on.
27:45
One of the things I've noticed since I've been here, especially early on,
27:48
is that-- and I would talk to people from back home or from back in the
27:52
States, wherever, and they would ask, you know, how the experience has been.
27:56
It, you know, it feels hard sometimes to say anything negative
28:01
or anything that's less than great when you do a thing like this.
28:06
You know, when you do things like this, you're putting yourself kind of on a limb
28:09
of sorts, and you want to give off some impression that you're-- that everything's
28:13
fine, that everything's good, that this decision you made is the right one.
28:17
Because it is, in spite of the fact that there are days and weeks where
28:22
it's not clear that that's the case.
28:26
But it's very difficult to express this to people back home, A, because
28:29
they don't entirely understand, and B, because you want to seem correct.
28:37
You don't want it to seem like this was a stupid thing to do.
28:40
Not that they would assume that, but you know what I mean?
28:44
It's hard to explain, but I've noticed this quite a bit as I've
28:46
been here, and maybe it's just my inability to be vulnerable or
28:49
something about this experience.
28:51
Maybe I should just open up.
28:53
But I also don't wanna give people a bad story.
28:55
Like, people wanna talk to me and hear about Mexico stories, and I don't
28:58
wanna be like, "Oh, it's really hard, you know. The-- It's all tacos all the
29:02
time," blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
29:03
Is it an ego thing?
29:04
Maybe it's an ego thing.
29:06
I don't know.
29:07
Anyway, maybe some of you can relate.
29:11
If you can, I'd love to hear from you.
29:13
I'm not gonna give you the phone number or the email address again.
29:15
You can look in the show notes if your memory is not what it used to be.
29:20
Good morning, America.
29:22
Oh.
29:24
Spent the night in somebody's pickup truck
29:29
Like a weird fascist let me stay in the back of his pickup truck.
29:34
I'm gonna take it.
29:35
I won't ask questions if people, if you ever need to tell me something, I
29:39
will listen and I will play the naive little German kid who doesn't know shit.
29:46
The guy I stayed with in Austin brought me out of town to like a small ass
29:50
gas station where like two gas workers who definitely had a crack history in
29:57
their life or some, some drug history.
30:00
They told me I kinda think they're key now, though they didn't look like it.
30:05
But I kinda made friends with them.
30:06
They've been cute, to be honest.
30:09
I think I spent like almost the entire day in that gas station.
30:14
And then I got another ride from like a Christian couple who like found their way
30:20
to God 20 years ago, blah, blah, blah.
30:24
And they brought me to past Waco.
30:27
Like I didn't want to stay, spend the night in Waco, so they brought me to
30:31
the next gas station outside of town.
30:34
They've been quite nice.
30:35
They've been decent people, interesting people, talked about community.
30:40
But also what they did, they bought off a story that justifies,
30:44
justified their misery kind of.
30:48
In their case, it was God, but it was… Like they've, again,
30:53
they were aware of everything.
30:54
They just consumed a story that kind of justified their misery and more, even
30:58
more importantly, justified the system.
31:02
Like they were fine living in an RV, working as an Uber driver, like not
31:07
really can come up for their six kids.
31:11
Then this fascist pulled up, but he got me in the back of his pickup truck.
31:16
And I don't know fascists.
31:17
Don't use this word too easily, but definitely confused the little guy.
31:21
Every place I've lived, people walk differently.
31:24
In Korea, they walked very close to you.
31:27
There was no personal space.
31:29
And sometimes men held hands with men.
31:31
True story.
31:32
That's not really about how people walk.
31:33
It's just a weird thing to me as an American, as a Statio Iudensis.
31:39
Pardon.
31:41
I lived in New York for a while.
31:42
New York, generally people walk, you know, in a straight line.
31:45
There's things that annoy me about people in New York.
31:47
These, you know, a skinny businessman will be holding a golf-sized umbrella
31:52
And walking down the street, and everybody has to walk in a wide
31:55
thing around him, and he's oblivious.
31:57
Or maybe he's not.
31:58
Maybe he's just like, "I'm rich businessman.
32:00
I don't care.
32:00
I need a big umbrella.
32:03
These are expensive shoes.
32:04
I don't want them to get wet," et cetera, et cetera.
32:06
Anyway, in Mexico City, people walk, like, they meander.
32:13
They kind of walk back and forth.
32:15
It's very unusual.
32:16
At first, I thought it was maybe just a few people, but as I've
32:19
been here now three and a half months, it's definitely a thing.
32:23
And I've talked to somebody else about it from the United States, and she agrees.
32:27
You know, I'm a fast walker, so I'm trying to pass people often, and it's difficult
32:33
because I'll be trying to come up on the left or whatever, and then they'll kind
32:37
of weave to the left, and then I'll k- try to move over and come to the right,
32:40
and l- and it, it, it it's maddening.
32:43
It is.
32:43
It really is.
32:45
Maybe you should slow down your walking pace then, Jef.
32:47
Oh, all right.
32:48
You know what?
32:49
That's not a solution.
32:50
There's no solution.
32:51
The solution is for me to just accept it or for maybe I should start to
32:55
learn how to weave when I walk.
32:57
And I mean no offense by any of this.
32:59
I'm, this is observation, 'cause it's strange to me that this
33:02
is definitely a thing here.
33:04
So if anybody has any thoughts on this Mexican weaving, walking,
33:08
meandering thing, please let me know, onefjefpod@gmail.com or 669-241-5882.
33:15
I'll mention it again.
33:16
Why not?
33:16
Because, you know, it's been a while.
33:19
So yeah, that upsets me.
33:22
And we have entered rainy season.
33:25
It hasn't been raining every day, but it rains most days, just for a little bit,
33:29
and it also hails a lot here, uh, because it's so high up and we're so close to the
33:35
cold air in the atmosphere that apparently some sort of a meteorological s- something
33:40
something causes it to hail quite a bit.
33:43
It hailed this afternoon, like a torrential hail storm.
33:45
It's very exciting.
33:46
I like severe storms, so it's kind of fun for me because the storms
33:49
here are pretty m- pretty crazy.
33:52
There was one, uh, two or three nights ago where there was a thunderclap
33:56
so loud I have never heard such a loud thunderclap in my life.
34:00
It shook the building.
34:01
Apparently, there was an article I, I saw an article that said that
34:05
the thunderclaps were so loud that night that they actually read on the
34:09
seismic or seismic meter thing, the seismograph they call it, I think.
34:14
Yeah, it was loud.
34:16
Yeah.
34:17
So that's exciting.
34:18
I mean, I don't mind a giant thunderclap.
34:20
I just wish I would pr- prepared for it because my heart took a boing.
34:24
Did you hear that?
34:24
Boing.
34:26
And underneath this, you can hear a recording of the rain as
34:29
I recorded it the other evening.
34:32
I hope you enjoy it.
34:33
It's a peaceful, tranquil rain that I recorded just
34:37
for you, my podcast listeners
34:47
Is that exciting for you?
34:48
I don't know.
34:49
Probably not.
34:50
But hopefully it's all interesting content.
34:53
Hopefully it's enough to merit an episode number.
34:57
I think it is, and I'm the decider.
34:59
I'm the decider.
35:01
Although, as I said, if you have any requests for the podcast, anything
35:05
at all, like throw them at me.
35:07
I'm curious, at least.
35:09
And frankly, I might do some of them.
35:11
Not all, you know, there's a limit to it, but throw them at me.
35:14
I'm curious.
35:15
What do you wanna hear?
35:17
Do you wanna hear me do a whole episode singing?
35:19
I'd think about it.
35:21
I'm not sure that you would enjoy the whole thing, but I can sing, so…
35:27
Or I could do the whole episode in like a different accent or something.
35:32
You know, I don't know, something to spice it up.
35:36
You're probably just like, "When are you gonna release the, uh, expat episodes?"
35:40
Well, this is kind of the beginning of an expat episode because Jonathan is an
35:46
expat himself in United States of America.
35:49
Mexican American dude who took me in his truck.
35:54
Like, everyone I met been so nice and so kind and so helpful.
35:58
But politically, the, the moment I mentioned I'm from Germany, he went
36:02
straight up to Hitler, and then s- bro, he started to shit talk every fucking
36:09
conspiracy that exists out there.
36:11
He's built like the usual conspiracy.
36:16
He wasn't that bad.
36:17
You… He did some good.
36:20
Um, but when he went real crazy, it was like that, like
36:25
Hitler wasn't the biggest evil
36:28
Devil will come soon-ish and we have doom day.
36:31
And I was like, "Huh?" And then he asked me about my opinion about
36:34
Germany, and about how we dealt with the aftermath of what happened back there,
36:40
and how Germany is, and how… Yeah.
36:42
He, he considered himself being educated on history, and he
36:45
knew quite some, I would say.
36:47
But, like, when it became politically or, like, recent history, he got confused.
36:52
He asked me about my opinion, and he was quite curious about it.
36:56
I didn't want… I didn't set my opinion, I just told him raw facts that we in
37:02
Germany, that due to the fact that basically everyone been involved or
37:07
their family been involved, everyone had a family business or still has one
37:11
today, that business was involved in Second World War for sure, and most of
37:16
our granddads, granddads were involved for sure, and we kinda feel that we have
37:22
a responsibility that something like that will never happen in the future.
37:27
Like, he lit- I literally silenced him, and he was like, "I never heard another
37:32
perspective." He was a truck driver, I think, and he said the same, like,
37:37
I think his world is really small, and he just… He, he didn't made it far,
37:41
though he made it to every fucking si- single state on the mainland of
37:44
U- of the US, but he probably living in his capsule and not experience
37:51
the shit that happened around him
37:57
Thank you all for listening.
37:58
As always, thank you all for giving me your ears and your attention.
38:04
Please like, rate, subscribe, and review the podcast on whatever
38:08
platform you happen to be using.
38:10
As I say every time, it does help indicate to the algorithmic gods
38:15
which podcasts are worth listening to.
38:18
And please do join the Patreon page, patreon.com/onefjef
38:21
for as little as $5 a month.
38:24
That's about 100 pesos, maybe like 90 actually now at this point, but whatever.
38:31
You can get access to all sorts of videos.
38:33
I will post some videos and photos from, uh, from the World Cup celebration,
38:38
and there's all sorts of other stuff on there for you to enjoy and
38:41
watch and listen to and all that.
38:42
And plus, you will get the privilege of being able to say that you are a supporter
38:47
of onefjef, and I really do appreciate it because as I've said, this is me, me, me.
38:54
Solo me.
38:55
So any bit of money helps.
38:58
Follow the podcast on Instagram @onefjefpod.
39:00
That's O-N-E-F-J-E-F-P-O-D.
39:03
Follow it on TikTok @onefjefpodcast.
39:07
You get it.
39:08
And on other platforms, wherever you find onefjef the podcast.
39:13
As far as I know, I am the only onefjef podcast, so filtering things
39:17
out shouldn't be too difficult.
39:19
And finally, please do share this with one, two, three friends of yours just
39:23
quickly right after you finish it.
39:25
Click Share.
39:26
Send it along.
39:27
Word of mouth is how these things kind of spread, so please send it
39:30
along to somebody else you think might enjoy this kind of a thing, whatever
39:36
this kind of thing actually is indeed
39:41
Is there anything else?
39:43
Yeah, if you'd like to email the podcast, onefjefpod@gmail.com.
39:47
And I will close this episode with a quote from Jonathan
39:51
from earlier in this episode.
39:53
"You have to suffer every once in a while to feel alive."
39:59
I'll see you next week.
40:01
Very good, Jeffrey