My Small Fat Mexican-Finnish Pandemic-Time Wedding

Heyyyyyy, it's been a while since we last chatted. I've missed you guys🤗! 

I stopped writing this blog when COVID hit, because, well, I just didn't really know how to deal with it. My blog was always meant to be a fun escape for my readers and I wanted to write about lighthearted, uplifting things, not about the pandemic, but I also didn't want to give the impression that I just stuck my head in the sand, completely oblivious to the world around me, because that definitely wasn't the case.

So, the way I decided to deal with it was not to deal with it. And I didn't write. Not for a loooooong time. In hindsight, though, maybe some people would have appreciated reading about something non-COVID-related for a change 🤷, but oh well.

Anyway, a lot has changed since the last time I wrote, for instance my country of residence (I live in California now), my home, my everyday routine, and... oh, yeah, I also got married 😉!

Today is my one-year wedding anniversary and, in honor of that, I hereby give you... 

...my wedding story: 

How I Finally Tied the Knot 

It had been several years since my fiancé got down on one knee and proposed to me, and although we hadn't managed to set the date yet (because life), we knew for sure that we were going to get married one day. 

This all changed when my then fiancé, now husband, got a job offer in the US, and suddenly "one day" turned into "like, now!"  

This was still in the thick of COVID, so we decided to have the official ceremony in Mexico, where we were living at the time, and a proper wedding celebration for friends and family later. 

Preparations (Part 1) 

To get officially married in Mexico, there's at least one paper you need for sure: your birth certificate. Incidentally, that was also the only paper I didn't have. 

In my native Finland, they don't exactly hand out birth certificates like candy, which meant that I had to contact the Finnish Digital and Population Services Agency and ask them to send my birth certificate to my parents, who then, in turn, sent it on to me. 

And so it began. The Wait. 

Did I mention that Hubby's new job wanted him to start like yesterday and we had visas to get and a move to organize? So the pressure was on. 

This is when I had my experience with THE WYLD OMPS (THe FEeling When Your Life Depends On Mexican Postal Service). 

"Our letters come when and if they come" is the official slogan of the Mexican Postal Service - and if it's not, it certainly should be. My poor mom had paid for express delivery, and yet my birth certificate was taking the scenic route to my mailbox; sightseeing, sleeping for weeks at airports, stopping to smell the roses, all while I was slowly losing my will to live. 

Every day the mailbox turned out empty, I aged another ten years (I'm 637 now), and every Amazon package that made it to our doorstep on time earned a dirty look and a passive-aggressive "Sure, of course, you are not late," from me.

And then, finally, our doorman Jesús (who lives up to every bit of his name) showed up at our door with a banged-up letter, and both he and I along with Hubby, our neighbors, mail carriers, and the postal services both in Finland and in Mexico rejoiced!

Preparations (Part 2)

One of the bad things about not having ample time to plan your wedding is that you don't have a lot of choice as to the actual date. I had previously sent a humble wish to the universe, asking to have our special day land on a somehow meaningful date, a lucky number, a loved one's birthday, etcetera. 

Instead, we got April 17, the International Bat Appreciation Day. 

Thank you, universe 😐.

Because nothing says love like bats!

A few days before the 17th, we got a checklist of what to consider and things to bring with us to the ceremony. The list included:

• a face mask and a face shield (because what little girl doesn't dream of wearing these two items on her wedding day)
• no witnesses (a COVID safety precaution)
• maximum two guests (also a COVID safety precaution)
• bolígrafo

Since my Spanish is a little rusty, I asked Hubby what bolígrafo meant. 

"A polygraph," he answered matter-of-factly.

I blanked at him. "They are going to administer a polygraph examination on my wedding day?"

"Apparently so."

"Huh."

I somehow always thought that the whole "Do you take this man/woman?" part was more or less a formality, but, apparently, Mexicans take their marriage ceremonies very seriously. 

But just when I started thinking about what color shoes might go best with the polygraph, Hubby took a look at the list himself. 

"Ohhh, bolígrafo!" he said. "I thought you said polígrafo. Bolígrafo is a pen."

Will the real bolígrafo please stand up?

Hm. Kind of an important difference, don't you think?

Anyway, with our face masks, face shields, a pen packed in our wedding bag, and an appreciation for bats in our hearts, we were now ready to get married.

Wedding Day

On the 17th, we arrived at the place of the ceremony, put on fresh masks (as one does on their wedding day), and got in line with the rest of the brides and grooms for our 15 minutes in front of the judge. 

One eternity and five bathroom breaks later it was our turn.

The judge only spoke Spanish but promised to do so slowly so that I could keep up. I figured I should have this one in the bag, as I only had to say one word at the right moment - Sí. As long as I didn't say it when the judge asked if anybody objected to this marriage, I would be kosher.

The judge proceeded to give a speech about the lawful union we were entering into, in accordance with Law This and Law That, and we agreed under the said laws to enter into a relationship as defined by law and, long story short, the law won. 

Did I mention, law?

And then came the question of the hour: "Aceptas este hombre como tu esposo?" ("Do you accept this man as your spouse?") 

But now, instead of doing my one job, which was to say "Sí," my brain decided that this was as good a moment as any to revisit my Spanish-101 grammar and, in my mind, I started doing verb conjugations: acepto, aceptas, acepta, aceptamos, aceptan...

After a small pause, I spoke: "Acepto?" (I accept?) 

The question mark wasn't there because I was having cold feet, but because I was unsure about whether or not I had nailed that conjugation. Luckily, the judge seemed fine with my answer and proceeded to ask Hubby the same question. 

I did a little happy dance in my mind when I noticed that he used the same conjugation. Without a question mark 😊.

"Under the law, you can now lawfully kiss your lawful wife," the judge said, and a storybook moment ensued as Hubby lifted my face shield (the poor man's veil) and planted a kiss on my mask.

Mask kiss mask

And boom we were married!

🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

Although I always say that the proper wedding celebration will follow later, this ceremony is still my official first wedding and, for that, it will always have a special place in my heart - quirks and all. 

The Future of This Blog 

So there you have it, my wedding story. I hope you enjoyed!

Before I bid you farewell, though, I wanted to talk a little bit about my plans for this blog: 

As much as I'd like to, I cannot commit to any kind of a regular posting schedule, mainly because I'm writing a story on Wattpad, which is taking up pretty much all my creative time and energy now. You can still expect the occasional blog post, though :)

In the meantime, however, if you miss me, you can check out the story I'm writing (you can read it for free here). It's a fictional story that takes place in the future. And in space. You can read the description below (scroll down until the end of the page). I post a new chapter every Thursday. 

And so ends the "shameless self-promotion" part of this blog.

Thank you everybody for reading! And Hubby, Happy Anniversary, I love you 💗💗💗!

The time I found Jesus... in a cake! (a.k.a Rosca de Reyes Part II)

As some of you might remember, last year I wrote about my fruitless search for Jesus in rosca de reyes. This year, though, with January and Kings' Day approaching, I got another shot at finding this elusive son of God.

Okay, so, if you're now wondering what the heck I'm on about, you haven't heard about this rosca de reyes tradition before, and you didn't read my post last year (shame on you!), here's the Reader's Digest version of what you need to know:

Rosca de reyes is a cake (or sweet bread) that's eaten here in Mexico and throughout the Hispanic world on January 6th, which is known as Día de Reyes (Kings' Day). In addition to that, rosca de reyes is, as it happens, baby Jesus's hideout 😲. Your sole mission - should you choose to accept it - is to find Jesus in the cake. And, if you are graced enough to be the one to find him, you get to (are forced to?) throw a tamale party on February 2nd, Día de Candelaria (Candlemas Day). Yay!

With me so far? Okay.

So, to find Jesus, you only need two things: a) a rosca de reyes cake and b) a healthy appetite. Your first order of business is, of course, to buy yourself the cake. Fortunately (or unfortunately), you don't need to travel to a small convent where a 100-year-old blind nun produces a single cake every ten years - or something similar - because you can actually find rosca de reyes in any supermarket near you (is it just me or is this news a bit of a letdown 🤔?).

There are many kinds of rosca de reyes cakes, different sizes, and even a chocolate option to rival the traditional one. The figurines in each cake look different and I've heard that there are even cakes which not only contain one baby Jesus, but two or three baby Jesuses 😲. Although this triplet Jesus thing could seem like some weird take on "Holy Trinity," I guess it's intended for parents who don't want their children to fight over who found baby Jesus. There's also a Star Wars rosca de reyes where, instead of baby Jesus, you try to find baby Yoda. But as cool as that cake sounds, this year I decided to go traditional.

Well... traditional with a twist, as my rosca de reyes was one that came with "a whimsical set of nativity figurines."

🎵 Nativity Figurines! Gotta catch 'em aaalll! 🎵

To be honest, buying this type of rosca de reyes was not so much an informed decision as it was my last resort because the store was closing and there were no other kinds of cakes available. The danger of a rosca reyes cake like this is of course that you don't know which whimsical figurines you'll end up with. For all you know, you could end up completely Jesusless [cue the sad 🎻].

Needless to say, this brought back all kinds of childhood trauma and felt alarmingly like the Kinder turtle fiasco of 1991 (if you were born in the 80's, you might feel my pain), when you would use your allowance Saturday after Saturday to buy a new Kinder egg in the hopes of finally getting that diver turtle only to get the pan flute turtle that you already had seven of! But, as I said, I was out of options. Also, I was somewhat encouraged by the fact that when the nice lady at the supermarket gave me a piece of the cake to sample, I suddenly bit my teeth into a nativity figurine. Holy cow (it was a cow)! What were the odds? With luck like this, I felt a bit more optimistic about my purchase.

The cow present at Jesus's birth

As I wasn't sure what you're supposed to do when you find a nativity figurine in your mouth at a supermarket, I decided to take the cow home with me to complete my future figurine collection (also, I figured the chances of the supermarket wanting to keep a nativity figurine that had just been in my mouth were probably pretty low). The cow also taught me the first rule of eating rosca de reyes cake: Chew carefully. If you bite too hard, you might chip a tooth!

Looking for Jesus

The second rule of eating rosca de reyes revealed itself pretty soon after I'd taken the cake home: You might as well just forget about enjoying the cake, since all your energy will go into finding Jesus!

Trying to find Jesus in rosca de reyes is actually more stressful than thrilling as you become paranoid about any tougher piece of fruit that you're chewing, worried that you might have just accidentally decapitated poor baby Jesus.

May contain Jesus

And then there are the other figurines.

When I was just a couple of bites into my very first piece, I felt my teeth sink into something hard and I thought, Oh dear baby Jesus! Could it be that I already found thee on my first try? Well, the answer was... no. What I actually had found was one of the Wise Men (at least I think it was a Wise Man - if not, it was either Joseph or just some random dude). 

Here's the evolution of finding this wiseguy:

Wiseguy flat on his face in cake

Wiseguy still not looking very dignified with more than half of his body covered in cake

Wiseguy numero uno all cleaned up!

The good news was that there were supposed to be 3-4 figurines per cake, so it was still possible to find Jesus. But just as I was about to continue my search, Fiancé told me he had found something in his piece. I felt my heart rate rise. Could he have found Jesus?

(Well, I'll leave you on a cliffhanger for a while.)

Here's a play-by-play of his discovery:

The first sighting

Behold wiseguy numero dos!

When it turned out Fiancé had in fact found wiseguy numero dos, the feeling was bittersweet: On one hand, I was happy that he hadn't found Jesus (also, he's Jewish, so that would have been quite the oxymoron), but on the other hand, my initial fear that there would not be a Jesus at all in this particular cake was beginning to re-emerge. If there were 3-4 figurines per cake, then that meant we were either halfway or two thirds of the way through and still no Jesus!

Seek And You Shall Find

The next day I got home, I was determined to find Jesus. Remembering one of his catchphrases "Seeketh and you shall findeth" (or something to that effect), I was ready to put his theory to the test, and polish off whatever was left of the cake.

I kept eating my way through it, risking death by gluttony, and yet... no Jesus. But just as it started to look alarmingly like there would be no baby Jesus at the end of this rainbow, suddenly, when I was on my very last piece of the cake, something miraculous happened: there, tucked inside the cake under an almond and between two figs lay no other than...

..plastic baby Jesus himself!

TADAAA!

Overjoyed, I sent a message to Fiancé: "Jesus found!"

"Good for you," he replied with a little (a lot) less enthusiasm, but I didn't care. I had completed my mission - I had found Jesus.

I celebrated my victory for a full five minutes until I suddenly remembered what finding Jesus actually meant: I would have to throw a tamale party (sigh).

Now, this might come as a shock to you, but I'm not a huge fan of throwing tamale parties. Apparently, though, I'm not alone with this sentiment. In fact, according to a Mexican friend of mine, this whole tamale party rule is the reason a lot of people avoid finding baby Jesus like the plague.

But I am nothing if not a woman of my word, so on the 2nd of February I got myself and my fiancé some tamales.

Tamales

If you've never heard of tamales, here's a what you need to know: Basically, tamales are a traditional Mexican dish made of corn-based dough that is steamed inside a corn husk or a banana leaf. There are many different types, some sweet and some savory. They look great, but to be honest with you (and in my humble opinion), they're a little meh.

Several different types of tamales and chocolate atole

For my tamale party (and I use the word "party" loosely here), I got several different types of tamales; one contained green salsa, one chicken mole, one chocolate, and so on. I also got atole, which is a corn-based hot beverage traditionally enjoyed with tamales.

But - you may ask - why does the baby-Jesus-finder have to throw a tamale party i.e. what do tamales have to do with baby Jesus? Well, the answer is...

...I've no clue.

However, according to one theory, it's because tamales sort of look like a swaddled baby Jesus.

The resemblance is uncanny, eh?

Whether that's true or not, I have no idea (if you actually know what the real reason is, please do comment below).

However, for me, the tamale party was just a necessary evil and finding Jesus was the main event. And, as so often happens, by looking for Jesus, I ended up not only finding him but also myself....

...not.

But I did find the whole nativity figurine set 👪. Well (*cough*) minus Mary and Joseph (and a camel and a sheep?) but maybe that's a goal for next year 😊.

Happy February, everyone!

Happy New Year! Feliz Año Nuevo! Hyvää Uutta Vuotta!

It's been quite the year! Just 12 short months ago our little family of two packed our bags and moved from Liège, Belgium (a little town with a population of less than 200,000) to Mexico City (a little town with population of 21,000,000 and counting). We found a new apartment, new jobs (more about that later), and had lots of fun adventures (you can read about some of them here). In addition, my blog was chosen as Expat.com's blog of the month and my short story was published by Drunken Pen Writing (hurray!!).

As tomorrow also marks the beginning of a new decade, I want to now take a quick look at how my life has changed in the past ten years. Ten years ago this time I was getting ready for my internship in Luxembourg as a translator trainee. Little did I know then that about two years later I would be moving to Portugal only to move to Belgium three years after that, and to Mexico three years after that. In these past ten years I've graduated from university (with a master's degree in English Translation), found the love of my life and gotten engaged, met a bunch of new people, made some great friends, had a gazillion different jobs, started this blog, published a couple of stories, learned a few new languages and brushed up a couple of old ones.

My life can be a lot of things, but uneventful it is not, and by the looks of it, next year is not going to be an exception.

I want to wish all my readers a fantastic new year! Bring on 2020 - I'm ready 😎!!

Día de Muertos

Happy November 😊! These past couple of weeks have been all kinds of fun for me! Halloween, Día de Muertos, the beginning of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and, to top it off, my story got published in Drunken Pen Writing (more about that later)!!

But now, let's talk a little bit more about Día de Muertos ("Day of the Dead") that took place last weekend. This was my first time experiencing the 2-day fiesta in Mexico, and I have to say that it was quite impressive! And fun. Actually, I can honestly say that that's the most fun I've ever had with death 😜!

Día de Muertos - What Is It?

So, what is Día de Muertos exactly? Well, in a nutshell, it's a Mexican festival celebrated between the 1st and 2nd of November, and its purpose is to remember the loved ones that have passed away and encourage visits by their souls. However, these visits - it should be noted - do not entail dead people being resurrected Pet Sematary style and turning into monsters. Nope. Unlike Halloween, the Day of the Dead is not a spooky celebration because in Mexican culture, death is considered a natural part of life and something to be celebrated rather than feared (go figure 😉).

Death has never looked more fun!

A central part of Día de Muertos are the ofrendas. Ofrendas are types of altars built by a family to honor their dearly departed. They are composed of a picture of the deceased along with their favorite foods, drinks, and other memorabilia. In Coyoacán, you can find several ofrendas made by different cities during the Day of the Dead festivities. Here are a few of them:

Typically, ofrendas incorporate the four elements: water, fire, wind, and earth. While beverages usually symbolize water and candles fire, earth is often represented by marigolds, orange flowers, which are also called "flowers of the dead" as they represent the fragility of life and are believed to guide the spirits to their altars. Wind, on the other hand, is represented by papel picado, colorful tissue paper cut into different designs. 

Papel picado

Obviously, I wanted to take part in this tradition, too, so Fiancé and I made an ofrenda of our own. This one (below) represents two of our major food groups - sugar and chocolate 😜 

Death by chocolate

What to Do on the Day of the Dead?

Día de Muertos offers different sights and activities depending on which Mexican city you are celebrating it in. A lot of the people I talked to actually opted to celebrate the Day of the Dead in some of the smaller cities as they were told the festivities would be more authentic (or less touristy) there.

However, that is not to say that you can't enjoy Día de Muertos in CDMX as well. First of all, there is the parade. (Fun fact: Do you remember that opening scene of the 2015 James Bond movie where 007 strolls through the Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City? Well, you might be interested to know that in 2015, there was no such thing as the Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City. In fact, the first parade that was held in 2016 in CDMX was inspired by this very James Bond movie - not the other way around.) 

However, as neither myself nor Fiancé are big fans of crowded places, we boldly decided to skip the parade, and instead got up early on Saturday and went to Coyoacán (the south of the city) to marvel at the ofrendas and check out the market where I got a couple more decorated skulls for my skull collection (okay now, kids, it's important that you not take this sentence out of context).

After that, we walked down Reforma street, which was decorated with tall, beautifully crafted alebrijes.

Alebrijes are fantastical colorful creatures that are normally made of papier-mâché or wood. They were originally the product of an artist's feverish dream in the 1930's and that's exactly what they look like - or what do you think about this guy, for example: 

Now, here's a fella I would like to have a beer with!

Interestingly enough, however, although alebrijes were incorporated in the Day of the Dead festivities, their only connection with the tradition seems to be the fact that they were featured in the 2017 Disney movie Coco as spirit animals. Do you remember how at the end of the movie (SPOILER ALERT!! If you haven't seen Coco, stop reading now) Miguel's dog (Mexican hairless dog, which, according to legend, is every newly dead's guide through the underworld) is promoted to an alebrije? It was definitely a visually impressive move (and alebrijes are part of Mexican culture for sure), but what these papier-mâché works of art were doing in the realm of the dead in the first place is beyond me (if you know the answer to this, please educate me).

There are the scary, nightmarish alebrijes, and then there's...well... this.

But whether or not they have a connection with the Day of the Dead, alebrijes are truly something unique and impressive to see!

The Highlight

After seeing the alebrijes, we were just about to leave when something magical - the highlight of the day - happened:

We saw a gentleman with a little bird and a bunch of folded pieces of paper, who asked me if I wanted to know my fortune. Naturally, I said yes!

The man urged me to tell Pedrito the Bird my name (I was at "T for tango" when I realized I was actually spelling my name to none other than a bird), after which Pedrito picked out one of the papers for me with his beak.

I took the paper and, with held breath, unfolded it.

This is what it said:

How about that typing, huh? Not too bad for a bird, eh?

I was enjoying this fortune until I got to the "you will arrive ambulances" part. Excuse me, but what does that mean? Will I live? will I die? Should I be worried about something? What?

Well, I guess only time will tell.

Pedrito the Bird works in mysterious ways. 

Closing words

As I mentioned at the beginning, the Day of the Dead wasn't the only great thing that happened to me last weekend, as my Halloween-inspired short story got published in Drunken Pen Writing (Woo-hooooo!!). The story is actually a (slightly adapted) chapter of a novel I've been working on, so by reading it, you'll get a sneak peak of what's to come 😉. You can read the story here - I hope you enjoy it 😊!

And that's all, folks. All in all, things are good. As one wise bird once said, my life right now is "a chain of happiness" 😍!  

Until next time, friends!

Guest blogger: That Weekend at the Lake House

Hey y'all! Soooo, I've been really busy lately (more about that later) and, although a lot has happened, I've been kind of struggling to find the time to write a blog post this month. That is, of course, until my knight in shining armor (Fiancé) came to my rescue, and promised to be my very first guest blogger (yay)! 

His first blog post is a short story that might or might not be based on true events (spoiler alert: it totally is 😁!) and has the ominous title "That Weekend at the Lake House" (dunn dunn dunnnnn). 

So, without further ado, here's his story:

That Weekend at the Lake House

We arrived at the lake house. Now, before you get too excited for me, this was in Finland, the land of 10 million lakes… or something like that. Where it's easier to rent a lake house for the weekend than freeze to death in the winter when trying to run to the store next door very quickly to get a beer without your jacket on. Okay, okay, I’m exaggerating, so don’t go and try it, die, and then at the Pearly Gates tell Peter, your dog Fido, or that long lost relative of yours who is waiting for you that it was all my idea. But anyway, I have been rambling for too long now, so let's get back to the main story.

We arrived at the lake house, first time meeting Kata's family, well, almost all of them, anyway. I had met her mom before when she'd decided that she needed to meet the fortunate guy living with her daughter. And also she wanted to witness my legendary (or so she had heard) Mexican cooking skills and asked me to make some fajitas (I won’t tell her if you don’t). Good news, her mother speaks English, bad news, her father does not. How is a guy supposed to impress and be liked by his future father-in-law without being able to use his smarts to charm him? More on that later.

The objective of the weekend was to celebrate Kata's grandparents' 80th birthday (yep, both of them). They were having a party that night, but the close family was staying at the lake house for the weekend. Meaning, we had a room. We arrived and before saying our "hellos," we decided to go leave our bags in the room. While she was unpacking, I snuck out to the bathroom and came back just in time to quickly nod and smile at a man climbing up the stairs saying something in Finnish. After this encounter, I went back to the room, where Kata excitedly announced. “Hey, you met my dad!!”

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Frack me sideways! There goes my first impression, and those two weeks of practicing how to say hello, nice to meet you in Finnish (BTW, do not ask me how to say it, it was one of those "memorize and forget" kind of learning experiences). Strike one for me. 

After that, we went down to the party, but not before Kata once again reminded me of the same thing she had told me many times before: “Do not drink alcohol in front of my father, he has trust issues with anyone that drinks, even beer”. Given what I just mentioned, it's not hard to predict what happened next. We arrived at the party, I met the family, and - surprise surprise -, when I said "hi" to her mother, she offered me a beer.

Hm, conundrum moment here: to reject her mother's offering (which, if you hadn't guessed yet, was more of a “take this” and less of a “would you like this” kind of thing) or to dismiss the warning, get my second strike, and hope for a hit, a double, or, even better, a home-run with my next try? After all, this was not a game I would like to have lost - to get her father to dislike me -, as it would make for a really awkward family reunion in the future. But I had confidence in myself that I could recover from this, so bring on strike two.

The party continued, as usual, people arrived and people left, it was one of those “we will be here all day, come and go as you please” kind of parties. Mostly, I stayed with Kata while people chatted with each other, but I did spend some time talking to her mom and brother, who - luckily for me - speaks English. Also, there were some other relatives that spoke English, so I was able to have a few conversations here and there. 

Now. This is the part when we arrive at the crescendo of the story. As the party went on, I decided that since I was not going to be able to get that homer with her father, I could at least get her mother to like me (at least more than just as the fajitas cook). That's when I had the amazing idea (please read that last part again with a sarcastic tone) of asking her mom for advice on what kind of an engagement ring her daughter would like. 

Before I continue, let me backtrack just a little. There are three things you should know at this point: number one, Kata and I had already talked about getting married, so this was not just an impulse question. Number two, Kata does not wear any kind of jewelry, rings, necklaces, bracelets, not even earrings. And number three, Kata always says her mom knows her taste in things better than her, so I could honestly use her advice, considering point number two just mentioned. 

I waited for Kata to be out of the room before I asked her mom, because although we had talked about getting married, we had not talked about me buying her a ring. Here is when I made the mistake that inspired this whole story: her brother was still there and heard my question. 

Why is this such a bad thing? you may be asking yourself. Well, because brothers are trolls, independently of how much they love or not their little sisters.

“You are planning to ask my father for permission first, right?” he asked. 

 Now, Kata and I are a modern couple, so I really had not considered asking her father for her hand in marriage. But, of course, by this point I had no option but to comply with the request or I would have looked like a jackass. 

“Of course I was planning to do that,” I lied. “How about the next time Kata leaves to go to the bathroom, I go ask your father and you translate for me?” Although I was not too happy with the current events, I also thought this could be the chance for that elusive home-run I had been hoping for ever since my strike two a couple of hours ago. So, when I had a chance to talk to Kata again, I told her what had happened and we agreed that in a while, she would go for a long break in the bathroom. And so she did, and I asked for her brother to help me out.

Her brother and I walked up to her father who was already in the corner of the room, sat down, and I said, “I just wanted to let you know I love your daughter and I was hoping to get your permission to marry her.” Or so I think I said, but given how nervous I was, maybe I just babbled something along those lines. 

The next couple of minutes were what could be described as a surreal dream: Brother turns and says something to her father, to which her father gives a 5-minute answer. All this time I have no idea what is happening, so I just smile very awkwardly. 

“He said it's not his decision, but Kata’s, but thanks for asking,” was the impressive translation after those very embarrassing and long long long minutes. 

“Congratulations, that’s amazing!” That was one of Kata’s mother's cousins, who'd heard the conversation. “We need to celebrate!” he says while bringing a bottle of some hard liquor and serving me a glass, right in front of Kata’s father. Okay, this will be strike 3, 4, 5, and 10. All at once, but who cares. After that, I definitely need some alcohol.

The weekend continued, but that is the end of this little trip down the memory lane. Before that, though, I would like to finish my story by letting you know that yes, I did propose sometime later (as the photo evidence below will show), and Kata and I are still very happy together. 

Epilogue:

Two days after we arrived back home, Kata received a text from her father saying that he feels like Toni did not translate all he said (which, without knowing any Finnish, I would have to agree with) and that he hoped that his answer did not scare me. Kata being the great daughter that she is forgot to reply to the message, until 3 days later her mom texted her also asking her to please reply to her father. 

Even if I struck out with him, poor man, he was worried for much longer than my 5 minutes for an answer. At least I think these days he likes me, or so my own Finnish Fiancée and translator says.

Random Things to Do in Mexico City: Trick Eye Museum

Panic in a Painting

Okay, friends, time for my trimonthly confessional (here it comes): Every since my visit to Virtual Room in Brussels a year and some months ago (you can read all about that experience here), I've been slightly obsessed with virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D, and all that good stuff. I mean, is it just me or is this stuff completely out of this world? Don't you just look at the tech we have today and think, "Yo, we're actually living in Back to the Future II! Marty McFly, where art thou?"

To answer my own question, yes, I think it is, in fact, just me. You know how in the 19th century they showed the first ever film featuring a train, and, allegedly, the audience got so afraid thinking "the little engine that could" would burst off the screen that they ran panic-stricken to the back of the theater? Well, I'm kind of like the modern version of that (although I'm not afraid the train is going to leave the screen - even I'm not that stupid), as my past experiences with AR have had me over-using phrases such as "But all this AR stuff looks so damn real!" or "It's like... I'm inside the video! How can it be?" while my fiancé next to me goes, "I know, honey. I know" (with a condescending tone, which, by the way, he has no business having considering he's an older fart than I am and thus even less exposed to the wonders of AR and VR than Yours Truly).

So, imagine my excitement when I heard about a museum dedicated to AR and other types of optical art right here smack-dab in the middle of Mexico City (CDMX for us "locals" 😛). The place is called Trick Eye Museum, and, after talking about it with Fiancé, last month I finally managed to drag him with me to this wondrous world of eye-trickery!

What is Trick Eye Museum?

Originally a Korean concept, Trick Eye Mexico City is the first Trick Eye Museum in Latin America. The way it works is that you take your smartphone or tablet with you, download the Trick Eye app, interact with the different installations implemented with the museum's very own Augmented Reality Technology - AR:T for short (cute, huh?) -, and take photos and/or short videos, making art where you yourself are the hero.

But since a picture is worth a thousand words (and I suspect a video is worth even more), why don't you just click on the video below to see what I mean?

So, what do you think? Pretty cool, eh? Well, I thought so, anyway.

By the way - for the sake of those of you who've never met me in person - that Pegasus-rider-extraordinaire in the video there is, in fact, Yours Truly. One thing I should warn you about, though, is that the Trick Eye app adds ten to fifteen kilos on the subject being photographed or filmed (hard facts!). They don't tell you that beforehand, though - you only find out after the damage has already been done (i.e. the pictures have already been taken) 😜!

Before you go

Here's a good tip: If you plan to visit Trick Eye Museum during school holidays, I've got one word for you:

Don't.

Or do, but know that the place will be so packed with kids that you're bound to get some serious Chuck E. Cheese flashbacks (unless, of course, you are one of us poor unfortunate souls who never had a Chuck E. Cheese in your country growing up, in which case you'll get Sara's-10th-birthday-party-at-McDonald's flashbacks). Not that I have anything personal against children, of course. It's just that they make me feel pathetic and old, and like they have more of a right to ride the Pegasus than I do.

Also, I happen to think that the museum is completely wasted on kids. I mean, come on now. You think the Pokemon Go generation will be even remotely impressed by some Pegasus flapping its AR wings? I think not. For them, all this new tech is pretty much the status quo, whereas we thirty-somethings (who should totally be the target demographic, by the way) are a much easier bunch to impress (Hello? The movie, the screen, the train?).

Despite this, it did seem to me that the museum was in fact intended for a younger audience. I came to this conclusion the hard way as the props at the place that were supposed support my Academy Award -worthy acting got me twisting my body into positions it was never intended to be twisted into. Let's inspect the picture below, for instance:

There I am as a ballerina. Don't I look serene?

Well, I can assure you that it's all smoke and mirrors (or, should I say, "eye-trickery?") as behind that fake brick wall I was quite the opposite of serene. The pedestal was just too high for me (the story of my life 😜), so I had to twist all 170+ centimeters of myself into a very awkward position while Fiancé took his sweet freaking time snapping the picture.

But I guess you just have to suffer for your art, don't you? And on the bright side, at least I got a pretty decent Facebook profile picture out of it 😉!

While there

Okay, let's get down to business i.e. the actual visit.

We arrived at the museum early in the morning (to avoid the crowds) and bought the tickets, after which it was time to gather downstairs with the other early birds. There we were given a demonstration on how everything worked, instructed on how to download the app (make sure your phone/tablet battery is full) and given a chance to test it.

Here's a quick demonstration:

Jaws without the app:

Jaws with the app:

This gathering downstairs was also when I experienced my mandatory "rage against the machine" phase. Helplessly I watched as one person after another announced that their app was working fine, while my phone was taking forever to download the data.

We did finally manage to make it work, though, but, unfortunately, the technical issues didn't stop there. We took the elevator upstairs to the museum, and when we tried the app again, it got super slow (we even decided to skip a few installations just because we really didn't need any additional white hairs, plus an old-age-beard is not exactly a good look for me). Finally one of the employees told us to hold a hand in front of the phone camera when we were walking from one room to another so that it wouldn't download all of the data at once. After that, things became a little easier.

Anyway, let's talk about the different installations. The museum is divided into five different rooms:

There's Aquarium,...

...Masterpiece,...

...Winter,...

...Halloween,...

 ...and Jungle.

(Okay, here's to hoping that you and your device survived that video overload!)

Each room at Trick Eye Museum has a lot of stuff to film/photograph. Sometimes, though, you have to wait your turn for a while and then end up snapping a hasty, disappointing photo because you don't want to hold up the line. (Again, I can't emphasize enough the importance of choosing an off-peak time to avoid the crowds.)

My fiancé was my camera person, but if you want to go alone, I'm sure you can ask the museum employees to film you, too. You will have to be filmed, though, unless you want really generic and boring videos and pictures, so if you (like me) are camera-shy, well, then get over yourself! More than being filmed, however, you'll have to get comfortable feeling a little silly in front of the camera as you can't see the AR stuff your camera guy/gal sees (so, basically, when I was petting that polar bear, I was petting air). But that's the price you'll have to pay for these memories, and, at the end of the day, it's not only worth it, it's actually pretty fun 😊!

It took me and my fiancé 1.5 hours(ish) to see and experience all the installations, and the time just flew by (At least for me. Not so much for my fiancé, whom I heard muttering the word "Finally!" on the elevator ride back down)!

Closing words

Okay, so, should you visit Trick Eye Museum in CDMX if you get the chance? (BTW: I should mention that I'm not being paid to say anything about Trick Eye Museum, so whether you go or not is no skin off my nose 😊)

Let's recap:

I would recommend Trick Eye Museum to you if

• you are interested in augmented reality
• the word "interactive" doesn't make you gag
• you are not camera-shy (or you are, but you're willing to let it go for one afternoon)
• you don't mind making yourself look silly in front of a camera

If you check all these boxes and decide to go, make sure that

• you have your smartphone/tablet with you
• your smartphone/tablet battery is full
• you choose an off-peak time to go

And there you have it!

I hope you found this post helpful. If you have any questions or comments, please use the comment section below!

Next time we'll be talking about something else altogether, so, until then...

...hasta luego 😊!