The Ring

Alejandro and I purchased our wedding rings in August of last year.  He had found a picture on the internet of a silver wedding band with a textured surface that he liked.  I liked it too, but I was doubtful that we would be able to find something similar in the jewelry shops of Mexico City.

One Saturday we went downtown to Madero Street in the Historic Center.  In colonial times the street was called the Street of the Silversmiths.  It still has numerous "Centros Joyeros" (Jewelers' Centers) that are like mini-malls filled with jewelers' booths.  We walked around several of these "Centros".  Most of the jewelers dealt in gold, and there was nothing similar to what we wanted in the booths that did silver jewelry.  

Finally, someone gave us the address of a person who did custom designs.  He was located in another "Centro Joyero" on Palma Street just a block from the main plaza.  We went to the place and managed to find the jeweler who had a booth upstairs.  Alejandro had the photo of the ring on his cellphone and showed it to the jeweler.  He said that he would be able to do an approximation.  He took our ring sizes.  When he told us the price we were flabbergasted.  We thought at first that he was giving us just the price for doing the original design, but no.  It was the total price for both rings in sterling silver... around 75 U.S. dollars!

By the time that I returned on my next trip, the rings were ready.  We made another trip downtown to pick them up.   They were beautiful and fit us perfectly.   The numbers 925 are stamped inside the rings, indicating that they are 92.5% pure silver... sterling silver. I tucked them away in the apartment until our wedding day on Valentine's Day.

Here's a photo that I took of my ring...

Probably on my next trip, we will take the rings back to the jeweler and have the insides engraved with our wedding date.

We lucked out on an incredibly affordable price, but I absolutely love my ring!

More Wedding Pictures

Last month I posted a few pictures of the civil ceremony in which Alejandro and I were married on Valentine's Day.  I had given my camera to Eduardo, a good friend of Alejandro's, to take some photos for us.  There was also a photographer present, and we ordered pictures from him.  We picked those up the last week of my stay in Mexico City, and Alejandro was able to briefly borrow the photographer's memory stick so that we could also upload the photos to our laptops.

Here are a few more photos of the ceremony...

Here you see the judge who officiated the ceremony.  Alejandro's sister and father are next to us.  I guess we really didn't need to wear face masks, but the sign at the entrance to the registry said that they were required.  Toward the end of the ceremony, we were told to take them off, so there are some photos later of us maskless.

In addition to signatures, our thumbprints were required on the document.  (I don't think that's something that is done in the U.S., is it?)  The ink remained on our thumbs for several days afterward.

For the exchange of the rings, I goofed up and put the ring on Alejandro's right hand.  The judge said, "Shouldn't the ring go on the left hand?"  I don't think it was so much a matter of being nervous, as it was that Alejandro's right hand just seemed closer. 

 Alejandro got it right when putting the ring on my finger.

Alejandro's good friend Eduardo was in attendance.  He got married last year, so his help in guiding us through the process and bureaucracy was invaluable.  (And yes, it was, as you can see by Eduardo's heavy coat and scarf, quite chilly that February morning.  Alejandro and I braved the temperature and just wore our "guayabera" shirts.)

The newly wedded couple William and Alejandro.

I have to say that, now that we are married, it was a little more heart-tugging than usual, when we said our goodbyes at the airport when I returned to Ohio.  Fortunately, it will be less than a month before I return.  I hope that the process of buying the condo in Mexico City and selling my house in Ohio will go smoothly so that I am soon a full-time resident of Mexico.

A Card from Switzerland

When I returned from Mexico last week, there was a Christmas card from Switzerland waiting for me.  It was sent by my cousin Vera.  Last year she sent me a card that was an example of "Scherenschnitte", a traditional Swiss art which translates as "scissor cuts".  I had told her how much I liked it, so this Christmas she sent me another one.

"Scherenschnitte" is an art form which dates back to the 16th century.  Beautiful intricate designs are cut by hand out of black paper.  Although the cards are machine-made, they are based on original designs by Esther Gerber, a noted "Scherenschnitte" artist.  I now have two of them.  I plan to have them framed, and to take this bit of Switzerland with me when I make the move to Mexico.

Vielen Dank, Vera! 

Rain Instead of Snow

I was not around to experience most of winter this year in Ohio.  However, there was not much winter to experience.  During the entire time that I was down in Mexico, my friend Frank who housesits for me only had to use the snowblower once.  There were numerous days in which the high temperature was in the 40s, 50s, or even in a few instances the 60s F.  Instead of snow, it frequently rained, and when we have heavy rain, the back yards usually flood.

On the day that I returned, the high temperature had been a balmy 61 degrees.  Last Friday it started raining lightly in the late morning, and continued throughout the afternoon, becoming heavier as the day progressed.  By evening had lakes in the front and the back yards along my street.  Much of the water had receded by the next day, but yesterday my neighbor still had a lake... and it is still there this morning.

 It's fortunate that all that precipitation was not snow, or we would have been buried!

The long-range forecast calls for the possibility of some snow later in the coming week.  But since the high temperature each day is going to be above freezing, I doubt that there will be any accumulation at all.

Flying Back (Part Two)

My flight from Mexico City to Washington Dulles Airport landed twenty minutes early.  I have never particularly cared for Dulles Airport, and I usually try to avoid it.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that there was no wait whatsoever to go through immigration, even though flights from Zurich and Frankfurt had recently arrived.  That might be because international passengers whose final destination is Washington are put on buses to go to a different immigration area.  However, once I passed through immigration and customs, going through security seemed very disorganized with a long, slow-moving line.  I will say that we were not required to take off our shoes.  They also had new x-ray machines that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, and we were not required to remove our laptops from our carry-ons.

I still had over an hour and a half before my flight to Cleveland was to begin boarding.  I headed to the concourse where my plane was to depart, and fortunately there was a United Club lounge.  I popped in and had a free lunch there.

I was at the gate for my flight about fifteen minutes before scheduled boarding.  The plane had just arrived, and a seemingly endless stream of passengers from the previous flight were exiting.  Then they had to clean the plane.  I really didn't think that we would be able to board and take off on time, but somehow we did.  We were up in the air and making the quick, one-hour trip to Cleveland.

It was twilight by the time we began our descent, but I could still clearly see the shoreline of Lake Erie.

There was no snow in Ohio.  The high temperature that day had reached an unseasonably mild 60 F.  However, I looked down and saw an area of snow.

It had to be one of the ski resorts to the south of Cleveland.  They were obviously using their artificial snow-making machines.

In moments we were over the eastern suburbs of Cleveland.

Then the break wall of Cleveland harbor and Burke Lakefront Airport were visible.

The small airport serves mainly private aircraft, some cargo planes and charter flights.

Then we were directly over downtown Cleveland.  Although the football season is over, the lights were on in the Cleveland Browns Stadium.

We continued in a southwestward direction.  The suburb of Lakewood to the west of Cleveland was visible, and we were making our final approach to Cleveland Hopkins Airport, which is about 12 miles from downtown Cleveland, and just 4.5 miles from my house.

My friend Frank was there at the airport to meet me and drive me home.  Now I am in Ohio for just over month until I return again to Mexico.

Flying Back (Part One)

My good luck with airline travel continued on Wednesday when I flew back to Ohio from Mexico City.

Alejandro drove me to the airport around 7:00 A.M.  In the morning light we could see the vague outlines of the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl through the haze, but by the time I boarded my plane they had disappeared into the smog.  Usually, we have breakfast together at one of the airport restaurants before I head through security and go to my gate.  However, Alejandro had to take his father to a doctor's appointment, so we said our farewells after I had checked in.  I had plenty of time, so after I went through security, I went into the United Club lounge and had a decent breakfast there for free.  My flight boarded and pulled away from the gate on time.  We didn't have to wait as long as usual on the runway for our turn to take off.  There were only three planes ahead of us.

From the tarmac, you can see behind the airport terminal the hill which is known as the "Peñón de los Baños" (Rock of the Baths).  I just did a bit of research on that craggy hill which I see every time that I arrive or leave from Mexico City International Airport.  The hill was once a small island in the lake that once covered most of the valley.  It is the site of thermal springs that were visited by Aztec nobility including the Emperor Moctezuma (Montezuma).   The mineral waters, considered to be of therapeutic value continued to attract notable visitors, such as Emperor Maximilian and his wife Carlota, through the 19th century.  A bathhouse drawing water from the springs still exists there, although the neighborhood is not a very desirable area today.  

We took off into the hazy skies above the vast metropolis.

Can you spot below us the ruins of the ancient city of Teotihuacan situated about 30 miles north of Mexico City?

Zooming in with the camera, you can see running diagonally from the left the so-called Avenue of the Dead, the main street of the city.  Halfway along the avenue is the Pyramid of the Sun (one of the largest in the world) and at its end the Pyramid of the Moon.

Before long we were flying past the coast of Mexico and out over the Gulf.  This time I was not going by way of Houston or Chicago, but through Washington, D.C.  Thus, our flight path took a more easterly route, and we were over the Gulf of Mexico for a longer period of time.

When we came over land once again, judging by the flatness of the terrain, and the many lakes and canals, and from the flight path shown in the airline magazine, I suspect that we were over Florida. 

Soon the clouds completely obscured the view below us.  It was not until we had begun our descent to Dulles International Airport that the clouds broke.  We flew over the Virginia suburbs of Washington.  The airport was visible in the distance.

We circled around the airport, and flew over a river (which, thanks to Google Maps, I later verified as the Potomac).  I suppose that if I had been on the other side of the plane, I might have been able to see Washington, D.C.

Rounding back, we approached Dulles Airport from the east.

We arrived at the gate about twenty minutes ahead of schedule.  I had a layover of more than two hours before the final leg of my journey back to Ohio.

Turning Another Page

March is here, and I return to Ohio today.  It will be a busy month, filled with appointments, filing income tax returns, calling contractors about some repairs that need to be made on the house prior to putting it up for sale, and of course socializing with my friends during the brief time that I am back in Ohio.

As I turn the page of the calendar that I made with photos from the Cleveland Museum of Art, we see an exquisite piece of 18th century Chinese porcelain from the museum's extensive collection of Asian art.