Sunny encounters

For just a moment there I found myself spinning on the point of a sword. A tiptoe away from being slashed. Saudade is the culprit. I was just thinking of something a long lost friend from college told me this morning: a Peruvian friend of hers gets annoyed by how all her Mexican friends are always missing their country. I am tired of this, she said, you guys are always talking about how you want to go back…

And yet who would think of complaining then? It was warm and sunny in the glass bubble that is the Metz café, where we reconnected after… what? 15 years? 2 mexicanas in Holland sharing inspirations and nostalgia like that video on street kids, we edited using two VHS recorders.

Between sips of fresh munt thee. We exchanged life stories and visions on being here and there and the crazy rides the horses of our lives have given us. Our glances pouring from each other over the skyline or down into the street. From the windows of the metz Amsterdam looks like a toy city with its train set going over the canal and through the rows of tall, skinny dollhouses like that wicked building on the corner: glossy red wood framing green windows topped by a witch hat of a tower. The ground level is a smart shop selling a variety of magic mushrooms. On my way home the name Pscilocybe Mexicana grabbed me by the corner of my eye and I stood in front of the window, staring at the little mushroom, so far away from home, among a group of Japanese teenagers, who whispered excitedly to each other, ogling the merchandise.

What a rare delight is a bright sunny day in Amsterdam. Its still kind of chilly but, isn’t it amazing how the sun highlights and magnifies the beauty of things? The water shimmers and the doves display iridescent collars of greenish pink and suddenly they don’t look like winged rats anymore as they do when it is gray and cold and miserable. Or maybe its just me.

I crossed an avenue in the last seconds of the green light, while I thought, well Duh! Of course we miss Mexico, we live on a sun high there, even if things get rough, so much joy is available to be sipped by the senses, so much warmth to celebrate. We live under the influence of the shiny sun perspective… And then I saw it: a roaring silver monster rushing at me. big Mercedes Benz taxi, with no apparent intention of stopping. My mind froze and my reflexes did the opposite of what would have delivered me to safety, I hit the brakes and stopped in front of the car and squealed waiting to be hit. Don’t ask why.

It was like the way they edit action films, prolonging the scene to the point of no escape and then jump cutting to the next where the character is getting away. The car stopped centimeters away from my legs. I heard an undecipherable cursing yell as I rode away stunned. As I reassessed the existence of all my body parts, I was flooded by an intense sense of aliveness. I glided downhill to a lovely snackbar I found a few days earlier. My Burrito on kinkerstraat is a (very lekker!) blologisch mexicaanse snack bar, with tables out in the sun. I had my first quesadilla with salsa verde in months: a perfect way to recover from near death.

I finally did get my fall that day, biking towards the park, my boyfriend cut in front of me. His fault, I swear.