Way back in 2023 when I was on exchange at the University of Bristol, I started a travel newsletter that I emailed out to family and friends. I had a lot of fun writing it and some readers may have found it fun as well. Then I came back home and having a travel newsletter didn't make much sense, but I did start a master's program in a somewhat niche field and wrote about that instead. Writing about my master's degree was less fun, but it worked as a second point of reflection of why I was learning and doing what I was doing. Then I graduated and took a break from writing. Time passed: I moved cities (a couple of times), got a (dream) job, and have now moved in to Toronto with my partner. I am now home, not in any special master's program, and find myself still wanting to write. But what do I write about now? So here's what I can promise. First, in times when I travel, I'll write about that—otherwise it'll be highlights from my work as a research associate at the Centre for First Nations Governance. Second, a certain writer called media criticism the worst thing in the world, so I will be doing just that. Third, I promise to throw a curveball every once in a while. So read on this week's article which has highlights from my one week in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula (trains!), my review of the movie Bugonia , and a little poem I wrote because I was afraid of having it out there.
Mexico's Yucatan (Yucatán, if it renders in HTML) is perhaps its most visited area. You may have heard of Mexican "all inclusive resorts" and most of them are here. As a result, flights to the Yucatan are sometimes very cheap and this is why I found myself in Cancun, Mexico for a week with no real plans. Well, there was one plan and that was to take the new tourist train, Tren Maya, for at least a couple stops. Tren Maya review: Absolutely stunning when you are in the train station and on the train, quite difficult to get there depending on the station. I booked a ticket online a couple days ago from Cancun Aeropuerto to Chichen Itza (extremely well preserved Mayan city artifacts), which was easy enough. I picked a 'window' seat but alas I was in one of the seats that, yes, did face a window but only the tail-end of one. I'm not entirely sure how you can plan on getting a true window seat but getting seats right by the doors would be a safe bet. The large, almost bay-like windows start at the doors between cars and alternate with fake window seats. But yes, the Cancun Aeropuerto Tren Maya station is a bit of a misnomer. You actually have to pay for a shuttle from the airport (sadly I forget the amount), ride around it for about 10-20 mins and then you are there. The station was magnanimous. The size of a small mall, it has augustian features like wide cascading steps, intricate stonework, and hallways that made me wonder how this fairly affordable train ticket covered the costs (Spoilers: It doesn't). When we reached Chichen Itza, it was another shuttle to the actual archaeological site that I had to shell out hard Mexican pesos for but this one felt more understandable. Here was a near two thousand ruin, surely you wouldn't want the construction of a HUGE train station to mess with it. Unfortunately, not other archaeological & ecological sites were that lucky. The Tren Maya adds to the long list of construction projects that did not do enough in terms of ecological and Indigenous consultation (link). I can only hope that one day that I learn of a train service that did this right.
There is something about the films by Yorgos Lanthimos that makes me reconsider what I have been doing up until the moment the curtains part. Something in his films that calls for a route change, a diversion from the usual flow of the world. I remember the first time I saw The Lobster (2015), I called a girl I had gone on a couple dates with and asked if she'd like to give a long distance relationship a shot. I hadn't planned on making that phone in the morning, but after watching the protagonists work so much for love, I figured what the heck, let's give it a go. I don't remember much about The Lobster except that it was about love and the existence of soul mates. If that is true, then Bugonia is still about love but about the overlap love has with belief. The trust we have in our partners, our parents, and family is, I've felt, this heady mixture of love, respect, and a child-like sense of authority. Without going into plot details, the characters in the film (with the lead played by the Jesse Plemons in yet another indomitable role) all have different relationships with love and the belief required in our loved ones. A belief that our parents do not lie, a trust that our siblings are looking out for us, and perhaps a hope in our children that they become better versions of ourselves. It's an exploration in the axioms of love and I adored every second of it. Well, perhaps held in rapture is a better turn of phrase (the gory scenes for example) but the movie held me and my attention that few others have in recent memory. The only one that comes to mind is the Hindi language film Homebound which incidentally is also about love but more so of the difficulties of love in an unfair world. After seeing both films, I walked away a bit stunned into silence. Ever more grateful for this funny experiment we're all in and curious about what the next day brings.
I remember spaces ebbing into
flowing times where when stops
and instead we all imbue
across planes, right through clocks
that scream "this is now!" and
whisper "home"