This past week in here in Mexico City was quite busy.  The trend of all participants missing their appointments ended and I had a full schedule with only one no-show.  We attended our final PIRE presentation in the weekly lab meetings and I think everyone is equally relieved to have finished.

Outside of the lab we visited the Frida Kahlo Museum (pictured below), “the blue house,” where she lived for most of her life and where she did many of her famous works.  It was very interesting to see the art as well as the history of what life was like for some in Mexico City in the early 1900s.  The house is located in the neighborhood of Coyoacán, which has many vibrantly colored houses and more of a small-town Mexico feel.  After leaving the museum we explored the neighborhood for a while before finding a spot on a terrace across from the main square.  While there we were offered an interesting snack by a local vendor.  As a group we ate two bags of grasshoppers, prepared with salt and roasted and then covered with hot sauce.  It was something a friend of ours from the lab had suggested we try, and it was honestly quite good.

Over the weekend I was taken by a local friend to the Soumaya Museum, which is a large, completely free exhibition of art in a building with architecture that sort of resembles a giant melting cube.  The museum was found by Mexico’s richest person, Carlos Slim, founder of one of the largest telecommunication companies in the world.  It contained incredible works of art from all periods and parts of the world, from the native art of pre-colonial Mexico to European artists such as Van Gogh, Monet, and Renoir.  The museum is dedicated to the entrepreneur’s late wife, who’s name was Soumaya.