mexico city day 1

well, i made it.  phew.

was kinda nervous waiting for my bus.  silly, in retrospect, but for my first bus ride i had no idea what to expect.  i managed to get on the correct bus and that in itself is an accomplishment for me.
my seat mate was felipe.  i started talking to him before we left because the driver made an announcement and he spoke so fast i only caught about 20% of it.  felipe told me that we were going to be late because protesters shut down the highway.  for years they've been asking for a bridge to cross on foot and no one listens to them, so they formed a line of bodies across the highway and wouldn't let any cars pass.  i can respect that.  it was quite a spectacle when we finally made our way across town and past them, it seems that no one in san miguel has ever actually seen a protest before.

the ride was pleasant, i spoke in my best spanglish and felipe and i talked about travelling and work and anything that i could find words for.  he had great english so it wasn't too hard.  he lives in san miguel and just recently took a trip to cuba, which i am very interested in.  best mojitos ever, apparently.  he'll be going back for work in a month or 2 and invited me to tag along.  yippee!

so we finally get to mexico city and OMG this place is nuts.  its huge.  zillions of people everywhere.  felipe helped me navigate the taxi system before we parted ways.  i may not have found my way out the door of the bus station alone, its like grand central station on crack.  my taxi driver was pretty crazy but good, he would start to turn down a street, see the traffic, throw it in reverse into oncoming traffic, try the next street, weave in and out, run lights, barely miss pedestrians.  we made it without incident and it really wasn't even scary.  i did learn that i shouldn't walk out into traffic and expect anyone to stop for me here.

i'm not super fond of my hotel but i think its probably the best i can expect here.  there's just too much noise everywhere to have a quiet room anywhere.  i went out looking for lunch, very careful to keep track of where the hotel is.  the streets are packed with people and cars and i am definitely not in love with this city.  its very intimidating to be here by myself.  but i found a cafe with good cheap food (and beer) and sat and people watched for a while.  then i walked a few blocks each way to check out the neighborhood and i'm pretty sure that i'm the only white person here.

i'm in the centro historico, 34 blocks of museums and historic buildings.  but i wouldn't have guessed that during my limited wandering, i saw dozens of wedding dress stores on one street, another street of camera stores, an entire street of jesus stores, with some small cafes in between.  i do have to admit that this place kinda terrifies me.  maybe i'm just tired from the bus, or the outrageous difference from san miguel, or that i haven't been in a big city in years, but right now i'm perfectly content to sit in my room.  maybe i'll watch some mexican tv.

tomorrow i'll find a taxi and visit the anthropology museum, i've heard that you should plan an entire day for that.  sunday will be finding diego rivera's murals and freida's house, maybe check out a mexican mall.  and monday the pyramids.  and then i'm off to the beach.  i can't wait for the beach, only 3 hours in the city and i'm ready to go!

adios tracy, enrique and kate

san miguel wrap up

i only have one more day in san miguel de allende.  its hard to believe that i've been here for almost 4 weeks!

i've enjoyed this town for a few reasons.  my spanish class is great, i especially love enrique.  i'm armed with so much slang (if i can remember it all) that i can get by in most any situation.  socorro was telling me today that there are a lot of 'sharks with legs' in mexico, especially at the beaches.  but enrique has taught me multiple ways to say 'fuck off' and that's about all i need if i'm in verbal trouble.  not to say that i haven't learned how to speak proper spanish, i have, and i think i'm good at it, but a girl should always have some sharp words at the ready.

i also like san miguel because its an easy place to begin a trip.  tracy and i went to el gato negro today for some micheladas and we spoke spanish with the owner/bartender and the mexicans in the bar. but if we didn't want to speak spanish it would be easy to find all american bars.  we met a man the other day that has lived here for 20 years and doesn't know anything in spanish except for muchas gracias and por favor.  i don't understand how its possible to live somewhere and not learn the language but i guess some people don't care.  it reminds me of the controversy in the us about mexicans that won't learn english...just reversed here.

i like san miguel because everyone is friendly and i can walk anywhere i want at anytime of the day or nite.  i don't think there's anywhere i can go that i'd be in trouble.  and when i see a group of mexican guys sitting on a doorstep in their wife beaters its doesn't send up red flags, they're probably just having a pleasant conversation in front of someone's house wearing something comfortable.  i wouldn't think the same thing in california.


this is a memorable week because its election time.  the entire country will be voting on saturday and sunday.  i've seen election posters everywhere, and there are trucks all over with speaker stacks blaring music and driving the streets campaigning.  the cutoff time for advertising has arrived so every candidate has been in the center of town throwing parties, bands playing, with massive fireworks shows.  i never thought i'd get tired of fireworks but...every night?
i haven't spoken to anyone yet who likes any politician so it seems kinda sad.  everyone is corrupt, from what i hear.  but they do throw good fiestas.  the only problem i've encountered is that the entire country goes dry for elections.  i'll be in mexico city during voting and i have to remember to buy beer on friday or i'll have to go all weekend without.  i can't imagine the united states curbing liquor sales for an election.  that would incite a revolution.

its kinda pathetic that i'm here in a time of possible historic change and all i can think about is where my next margarita is coming from.  but whatever.  i'm on vacation.

'el nino' making micheladas

more language lessons

did you know that in spanish there is only one letter different between saying 'i fell' and 'i pooped myself'?

i'm not even going to tell you how i found out.

random san miguels in the strangest places

jiggly bits

three weeks.  that's how long its taken me to get seriously out of shape.

when i first got here i thought i'd actually lose weight from all of the walking i had to do.  every time i'm hungry i have to walk somewhere, and at 6500 feet, even going to the corner grocery store made me break a sweat.

so i started running with tracy 2 or 3 times a week.  we'd get out while its still pitch black outside and run out of town, on the side of the highway.  cars and buses are screaming past, making us jump off the side of the road (yes, the painted lines are optional), and we're breathing the horrible exhaust fumes.  add that to extreme altitude and it makes for some seriously unhappy lungs.  the first run was awful, i really thought that i was going to die on the side of the road.  and 2 weeks later, it wasn't getting any better.

tracy has mostly taken me for 'flat' runs, with these tiny hills that feel like mt everest.  and little by little i could run further but always breathing like a fat asthmatic lady trying to climb stairs.  we ran hills on friday and that was maybe the worst run ever.  i think we went about 4 miles total but the first half was almost straight uphill and tracy kept stopping to wait for me and yelling at me because all i wanted to do was sit on the curb and cry.  i didn't think it would take this long to acclimate to the altitude.

so i started feeling really bad about my plummeting fitness level this weekend.  especially after several days of nonstop margaritas.  and an out of control corn chip addiction.  i tried to do some of my trx cardio and that was just sad.  4 burpees and i'm sprawled on the floor trying to breathe.

yesterday i went swimming with tracy and her kids.  the only reason i could walk out in public after seeing myself in my bikini was that there were a dozen fat ladies doing water aerobics in the pool.  nothing like using someone else's problems to make myself feel better.  at least that inspired me to try to swim some laps.  but mostly i just wanted to lay on the comfy chair and nap in the sun (which tracy made me feel good about, 'tan fat looks better than white fat').

so today's run was actually pretty good.  i went further than before, and was able to talk a little bit.  i think i'm finally getting accustomed to the altitude, just in time to leave.  and i keep telling myself that i'll get back into shape when i get to the beach, i'll swim every morning, surf, run on the sand.  but there are also new bars and restaurants to try everywhere i go.  maybe its just time that i made peace with 'fat melissa'. embrace the mumu.

it sounded more mexican on the menu

mexican reality

today's class with enrique was extremely informative, with new words like normal, but also with a great geography and cultural lesson.  i was asking him about places in mexico and what they're like, what places shouldn't be missed.  and the subject veered off to violence in certain areas, and what's going on in mexico now.

the basic idea is that i shouldn't be afraid to go to any specific area of mexico.  sure, there are bad places, like go to new york but don't go on certain streets, same thing here.  every town has its bad streets, but no place is completely bad.  even in the areas of mass killings, tourists have never been targets.  you'd have a better chance of getting robbed by some random guy on the metro than be a victim of drug crime.

the big drug traffickers are pretty careful about who they kill and cut into pieces, they don't just shoot who ever is in the area.  that's just in the united states!  they don't have a term similar to 'going postal', and they don't have kids that bring guns to schools and spray their classmates.  large scale violence against people you don't know doesn't occur here.  almost every person who was found dead was killed purposefully.  and everyone knows why.

whether true or not, enrique told a story about his father who lives in chihuahua.  he was sitting at a table playing cards with his friends, like he does every afternoon, and a man with a gun walks in and asks for a man by name.  the man answered, and got shot in the head.  no one was surprised, or did anything about it, because this man had a small hardware store in a small town, yet somehow made enough money to have several houses and all his kids had cars and studied in europe.

before i left kauai several people told me that i was stupid to even think about going to mexico, its too dangerous.  but with a bit of common sense there's no reason why i shouldn't go wherever i want here.

which brings up the list of places in mexico that need visiting.  it got bigger today.  i don't know how i'm ever going to move on to central america.  there's a train the goes to copper canyon, which is deeper than the grand canyon, although not as wide.  sounds good.  and if i'm in mazatlan, thinking about going to la paz, why not go north for a bit and check out the crazy desert next to the ocean in baja california?  and if i'm going all the way up there...tijuana??  i think i'm the only person i know who hasn't been to tijuana.

but i'm gonna have to rein it in here, there are far too many other places to see than mexico.  or i'm gonna have to find a way to travel for a living.  mexican sugar daddy?  i don't think that term exists here either.  but i'll keep looking.

chili rellenos from today's cooking class

what to do...

i fully intended to write something profound and interesting but i seem to be drinking my dinner tonite so that's not gonna happen.  damn margaritas.  they are just so appropriate.  for any time of day.  tequila is cheaper than water and fresh limes everywhere...

instead of wandering the city after class i booked my next couple of weeks.  i'll be staying in san miguel for one more week (instead of leaving this weekend as i previously thought), then taking a bus to mexico city.  juniper and i are going to the bus station tomorrow to check it out, she's leaving saturday and i just want to see what i'm in for.  i have visions of checking my bag, then watching from the bus as someone walks off with it.  but rebecca has been riding the buses here for a while and says its pretty safe, the seats are comfy, and there are little tv screens on the seat backs, that its even better than planes.  the inexperienced traveler in me definitely wants to see that before i have no other choice.  

i'm staying in mexico city for 4 days, just enough time to see the pyramids, the anthropology museum and diego rivera's murals.  then a flight to mazatlan for a week of beach and relaxing.  i hadn't planned on mazatlan when originally thinking about this trip but the name got stuck in my head, and i just like saying 'mazatlan' out loud.  so i'm going.  

i booked a room in mazatlan that is a bit over my daily budget but its oceanfront with a balcony, and i couldn't resist.  on kauai that would be at least a $400ish/night room, but here its only $50 (and i have my own bathroom too!).  and although its above budget...why not?  so that brings up the dilemma, travel and see the world for a year on a budget, or live like a queen for 8 months?  i know how to scrimp and save and be frugal, but when will i get to do this again?  

tough decisions...

if i keep making my travel plans while drinking homemade margaritas i might be broke and back home in a couple months :)

a keg of tequila.  good idea or bad idea?

presents for tracy

today i learned what a horrible place the post office is.

i bought a couple gifts for sol's birthday, and some organic mexican coffee for shanti.  i had a slightly large box so i figured i may as well fill it before i send it.  so tracy and i walked to the post office and the first thing i am told is that i can't mail coffee beans.  which is exactly the opposite from what the man at the coffee shop told me.  so happy birthday tracy, here's some coffee.

i'm still going to mail sol's presents so the woman weighs everything and tells me that it'll cost $65 (US!) to mail everything.  which might not be so bad but the total cost of the contents is now only about $20.

whatever.  ok, i'll still mail it.  the spanish book is super cute.  what, you don't take credit cards?  what post office doesn't take credit cards?  i have about 200 pesos on me, and the nearest atm is a 10 minute walk.

so tracy's children now have sol's giant wooden crayons.  merry christmas.  they were made out of actual tree branches too.  oh well.

i still have the book and i'm not entirely sure what to do with it.  it's way too cute to leave, and there's definitely no return policy at the store.  so i guess i'm going to haul a spanish language children's book around the world...

and when i'm old and infirm and i call sol to come over and take out my trash and carry my groceries i'm going to remind him about this book.

oh the places this book will go

guanajuato and los locos

big weekend here.  and that's the problem with writing, so much has happened that i can't decide what to write about.

so let's go latest to oldest.  today was the festival of los locos (the crazies!).  and it was truly crazy.  i spent hours watching hundreds of people dance through the streets with amazingly elaborate costumes, throwing candy to the crowd.  and when i say crowd, i mean that half of mexico was smashed onto the sidewalks.  and when i say throwing, i mean they were pelting the crowd with candy.  it was pretty funny, for a while i felt that i was a target being the tallest person around, it was a game of 'let's bean the giant chick in the forehead with crappy gum and lollipops'.  but the kids around me loved it, all they had to do was scrabble around at my feet for what hit me and dropped.

the dancers were amazing.  the simplest costumes were rubber masks and an appropriate outfit, but this is a festivous place, with a leaning towards paper mache, so most people made huge heads to wear on their painted bodies.  each neighborhood had a different theme so there were dozens of simpsons, avatar characters, clowns, devils, transformers, traditional mexican characters, cross dressers, giant men in diapers, and every cartoon character imaginable.  and each barrio had a truck filled with a generator and about 7' of speaker stacks blaring mexican music.  it was truly a site to see, and anyone wondering where they should vacation at this time of year should make the trip to san miguel for this insane parade.

yesterday was spent touring guanajuato, which is a bit older than san miguel and houses the university.  we went to the childhood home of diego rivera, which was super cool.  his parents were landlords by trade, which seems a strange thing for that time, but they built a house on the side of a mountain when there weren't many houses and every time they needed more space they simply excavated further into the mountain and created another room.  smart.
a lot of his work was on display, and can't wait to get to mexico city to see his murals.
i learned about micheladas, which is basically beer and fruit juice and salsa.  and realized while sitting in the bar that i don't know any famous mexicans.
we went to the mummy museum which was super creepy.  when i think mummy, i think about the  bandage wrapped mummies of scooby doo.  but these were full on naked dead people and it was really disturbing.  jorge has been there about 500 times, leading tours or classes, and knows it by heart.  he started going there when he was a child and the bodies were just propped up against the walls, no temperature controlled glass cases, and puddles of water on the floor and horrible smells.  he had nightmares from it.  i can't imagine, because i can't even imagine taking a child there now.  yet there were children of all ages there.  i also saw a couple on a motorcycle, holding a newborn.  so there are huge cultural differences that i'm still learning.

i'm getting a couple addictions from my 2 short weeks here.  corn tortillas and catrinas.  the tortillas are probably obvious, yummy fried corn.  who wouldn't.  but the catrinas are super fun, the skeletons dressed up in formal clothes.  created by jose posada, they represent corruption by the wealthy class.  and although he only created the basic form, now they come in every style and color, but always a skeleton in some sort of fancy dress.  i want to buy every one i see and decorate my house in them.

and as much as i love san miguel and its super fiesta ways, i think its time to move on.  more truthfully, i think this place is more party than i can handle.  my liver hurts.  and i need about a week to catch up on sleep.  so after this week i'll share a ride with juniper and head to mexico city for a few days.  i was a bit intimidated heading to the biggest city in the world by myself so it works out pretty well.  we'll check out some pyramids, she'll head home to washington and i'll hit the beach.

my spanish is coming along pretty well, despite my recent failures.  the only new embarrassment to report is at a tortilla stand on the way to guanajuato.  i got nervous because all these people were watching me, so when i tried to order i told the woman 'i am a cheese quesadilla'.
whatever.  i still ate.

two weeks down and all is well.

los locos

mas tequila

ok so we just got home from guanajuato, and we're a teensy bit drunk.  i took notes all day so i could compose a great blog entry but perhaps that will wait until after i've napped.

but for now, i'm gonna sum up mexico in a couple sentences.

juniper, jorge and i are pulled over at the side of the road making palomas, which are tequila and squirt.  yum.  we toast the traditional 'salud', and a passing driver hears us and toasts as well, holding his beer out the window.

mexico.

me gusta mexico :)

trouble

gringa loca

i was sitting in the visitors office at cañada de la virgen this afternoon with juniper and 2 mexican guys.  we're practicing our spanish while waiting for the tour bus to see the pyramids.  i was trying to say that i forgot something, which is 'dimentico' in italian.  but i'm not in italy.

in spanish, dimentico is to be crazy.  which these gentlemen were kind enough to point out.

which brings me back to my laundry.  now i know that i was saying that i have shit and am crazy.  

(sigh)

today's adventure

language lessons

yes, i went to an old chapel yesterday, yes it had tons of great history, yes it had lots of amazing catholic art, blah blah blah we've all seen those.  atontonilco, guanajuato, google it.

what i'm excited about today is spanish lessons. in general they're great, socorro is a wonderful, patient, helpful teacher, and enrique keeps everything fun and likes to teach us 'mexican-isms'.

when i was worried about losing my laundry, i was trying to say that i was afraid, 'tengo miedo' (i have fear).  but i got it twisted up a bit and was saying 'tengo mierdo', or, i have shit.  which i suppose is a logical reason to need a laundromat.  so i've been walking around town telling people that i have shit, i guess.  i said it in class this morning and i thought that socorro tiene mierdo, she was laughing so hard.

the first nite i went out with benito and luis i must have said something wrong because they looked at each other and said 'i don't know about him, but i have 2 balls.  you too?  we have 4 balls'.  i think i was trying to ask if it was thursday.

i'm sure i'll have many many more embarrassing mistakes.  and, the word similar to embarrass in spanish (embarazada) actually means pregnant.  i think i told socorro that i was pregnant after i told her i had shit.

enrique will bring up local sayings or teach us some slang.  this is my favorite part of class because usually he mentions things because of mistakes we make and we're laughing so hard we're about to fall off our chairs.  when you say its hot, esta haciendo calor, or hace calor.  but if you try to say i'm hot, maybe estoy caliente, you're telling everyone that you're horny.  hot guys are 'mangos', or 'un taco de ojo' (eye taco?).  and we can use 'vomitar' when sick, or better yet, 'saludar al monster', say hello to the monster.  i love these.

billy was explaining some slang that all the younger adults/teens use.  they greet each other 'hola, buey', and buey is an ox.  they figure that the ox is the dumbest animal alive because its the biggest animal, yet it does all the work for a tiny animal (us).  it could easily turn around and trample the man and never have to work, but it doesn't, so it must be incredibly stupid.  so they started calling each other 'buey', which was shortened further to 'way', which now sorta means 'dude'.

i have absolutely no doubt that i will continue to unintentionally tell people about my bodily functions or parts when i'm innocently discussing the weather but its a great way to get people to talk to you.  walk into a bar and announce that i'm horny?  i'll have plenty of guys to help practice my spanish and maybe i'll get all my drinks for free too.

this is what i didn't write about

mission not impossible

bit of an update on my tasks...

after explaining about my fear of the lavenderia and losing my clothes, marta offered to escort me to 'el cisne', where she knows the women.  and it was run, indeed, by a large, round, mexican woman.  we made jokes about there being nothing my size in town and that i'd have to walk around naked if i forgot where my clothes were.  first mission of the week accomplished, i have clean clothes.  washed, dried and ironed for a little over $2.

conquering fears

a new student named juniper showed up yesterday.  she's been traveling for a few months and has just arrived from south america, so her spanish is pretty advanced.  she's living in the big house with me, and its nice to have someone to talk to (and drink with) without having to leave.  we wandered around town after class and explored a bit more.  its easier to ask for directions when juniper is around because she understands a lot more when people speak fast.  so i ask, where's the post office, i get about halfway through before i'm lost.  juniper got us to within one doorway.  another mission down!  

but i did find out that you have to have your own boxes and tape.  

so we set off to find 'solutions', which is private post office type place, they pack your boxes and mail them for you.  bummer in all of this is that i have no idea how i'm going to mail things illegally.  where there's a will there's a way, though.  and like jorge says, 'this is mexico, anything is possible.'

postcards tomorrow, i promise

a mid day update

i'm not feelin so hot today so i'm hanging out in my 'dorm', in the cool kitchen, and refuse to go outside.  i have multiple issues today and am counting the hours until 8pm, when i will let myself try to go to sleep.

yesterday, tracy and i went to a friend's house and made stuffed jalapenos.  omg they were so good.  mix the cream cheese with garlic and cumin to stuff the peppers, mash in a couple shrimp, wrap them in bacon, egg whites then breadcrumbs then fry em till they're crispy.  omg so good (yes i repeated that twice, they were that good).  had some drinks, good nite.  but i get home about 9:30 and i can't sleep.  totally quiet nite, too, no fireworks, no dogs, no church bells, no chickens, no nada.  

a note about sleeping here, i really haven't been.  i'm not sure why, i can't fall asleep, and i don't stay asleep more than 3 or 4 hours.  sucks.

last nite is different in that i didn't fall asleep until about 4:30am, and i had to go running at 6.  so yes, i'm tired today.  issue one.

discovered issue two even before i went running, those jalapenos were not my friends.  not sure what part of dinner hated me so much.

and you can probably guess issue three, i went running at 6500 feet in the mountains, after having had no exercise for over a week.  i only went about 3 miles but i swear i almost vomited out my lungs.  

tracy met me and showed me an 'easy' route with mostly flat (cobblestones) and that was more than enough.  also remember that tracy is a personal trainer.  it was only about 15 minutes until i thought i would die, but she wouldn't let me turn around until i made it to the top of a hill.  and then she tried to trick me into going down the other side.  sneaky girl.  

now we're on the way back, i'm breathing so loud i'm waking up the neighborhood, and she stops.  oh merciful god, i can stop.  for what?  single leg lunges off the curb?  are you fucking kidding me?

but i am who i am and i couldn't let her do them alone.  25 each leg.  done.  run another half mile, thinking about walking, tracy's slowing down!  hurray... wait.  pushups?  and finally, we get to my house (i made it clear i would not be able to accompany her home), and i'm guilted into a set of jump squats.  

i'm still waiting for issue number three to make itself more known, i'm sure it won't be long.  i think i'll love dark as night, cold morning runs with tracy when i've slept and can breathe.  but i'll probably be at sea level well before my lungs will agree to this again.  

before i left i was wondering how long it would take me to get sick.  9 days.  but i'm not sick sick, so i don't know if this actually counts.  its not like oops i drank the water sick.  i know that's in my future somewhere in the next year so i think today's just a dress rehearsal.  

stuffed jalapenos in progress

just another day in mexico

you're probably kinda bored with my day to day life so i'll keep today's update short (plus, i'm a bit tipsy so my 'short' is still probably gonna ramble a bit).  

i did multiple cool things today, but i'm gonna limit myself to 'things i've learned.'  and 'things i want to accomplish this week.'  but i might start there and end somewhere completely different, whatever, i'll do my best to keep on point.

first, there's no point in trying to go to sleep at a respectable hour.  someone will always think that fireworks 3 hours after your bedtime is still a respectable hour.  thus, i'm starting this at 11pm.  there's a full on band outside my window right now, and although i promised tracy i'd run at 6am i just have to deal with the fact that i will only have 4-5 hours of sleep if i'm lucky.  i got to bed at around 2 last nite and at 4 i was awakened by a fireworks show.  really?  

one of my teachers describes san miguel as 'fiestero', an actual adjective to describe how much they enjoy their fiestas.  god help me when there's an actual holiday.

the cucarachas aren't any bigger than in hawaii.  thank god, cuz i could barely deal with them there.  come to think of it, i didn't deal with them, i ran screaming and got someone to deal with them for me.  but whatever, the mexican cockroaches of my imagination were way bigger and more ferocious and maybe had some teeth too.  so i finally saw some today while walking home and they were big and gnarly but nothing a slipper can't handle.  

i also saw my first scorpions.  both were already dead so no extra courage was required on my part.  they were sorta cool to look at, not like a dead roach or cane spider, i'm not sure how to describe it (i'll probably change my mind when i'm chasing one with a phone book).  tracy later remarked that they were teensy babies (actually i think she said 'where's your daddy') and that gives me some pause but it's better to have seen one than to be wondering.  for now.  

finally, there's no amount of hair conditioner, chap stick or skin lotion that will keep me from feeling like i'm going to dry up and crack into dusty pieces here.  but that's just locational so i'll just keep looking forward to the beach days to come.  and apologies for that, and the many other split infinitives that i've used, to those that are more anal than me.

as for what i want to accomplish this week, they're both fairly pedestrian types of things.  i want to find a post office and mail something.  do they have those ready-to-use boxes like our post offices or do i have to find my own box?  every day i see things i want to mail to my friends but until i know what i'm doing there's no point in buying anything.  i was also told that there's about a 50/50 chance of the mail actually getting to its destination (or arriving here), so i'm going to buy 2 postcards for everyone and try to get feedback on what is received.  there's only a week until father's day (sorry dad!) so i'll mail 6 father's day cards and hope for the best.  

my second task is getting laundry done.  might not seem like much but i'm slightly afraid of the lavenderias here.  there is no laundromat so i have to give my clothes to someone (not just someone, its going to be a short, round, old woman in a room with a washer and dryer).  i had so much trouble finding clothes that fit me i don't know what i'd do if i lost all my clothes.  i'm not assigning blame in advance to these women, i'm sure they know their craft, but what if i can't find the place i left my clothes?  that's a real concern in my geographically challenged world.  so, note to self, take lots of pictures.  

but i have to admit that i'm a bit self conscious with this as well.  are these mexican women prepared for my thong underwear?  i really don't know why that's a concern but it is what it is.

finally, (yes, finally, i promise), i am learning daily to be thankful for the small things i have.  i was in houses today that i couldn't afford if i worked and saved for a gazillion years, and i was envious.  but the average mexican worker won't make in a year the amount of money needed to buy the computer i'm typing on right now.  

so, life is good, even if someone laughs at my underwear.

sunset overlooking san miguel

one week in mexico

i've only been here for a week but it feels like i've been away from home forever!  time is moving really slowly here for some reason, which is great for vacation.  it's probably because i don't have that much to do.  i plan one or two activities per day and that seems sufficient.  i'm learning how to relax and do nothing, which might be the national pasttime here.  at least on kauai we sat around and drank beer, i was good at that.  here people sit and watch and just be.  an acquired skill that i'm not sure i'll ever be good at.  

i'm overcome with guilt that i haven't worked out in over a week.  dragged my running shoes a few thousand miles to sit in the closet, i guess.  there aren't that many hours in the day that are cool enough to exercise and so far i haven't been awake for any of them.  i heard there's a yoga and trx studio nearby and maybe i'll check it out.  but every time i'm hungry i have to walk several blocks to eat (too hot to cook!) so i think i'm doing alright.  

but that does bring up a potential problem (if i do get fat!), mexican clothes.  i'm a bit unhappy with the clothes i brought so i've been visiting all of the little shops and trying on shirts.  the mexican textile industry was not prepared for a girl my size.  i keep asking 'mas grande?' and they always say no.  the woman in the bra shop just laughed.  

so today's challenge was to find a taxi and go to the mall.  doesn't seem hard but i realized that never in my life have i flagged a taxi on the street.  i walked to starbucks for coffee (where 3 heavily armed men were hanging out…rifles, ammo belts, guns totally at the ready…i wrote down what their uniforms said but can't figure it out), and started looking for a taxi.  easy, done, quiero ir a la plaza, por favor!  and what do i find?  a fucking mexican macy's.  one of these years i'm going to go somewhere with real stores.  

but same thing as the stores on the street, like clothes for dolls.  oh well.

i wanted to see 'avengers' in spanish but they were doing construction in the movie theater and all i could make out from the woman was '3 days'.  i'll try again later i guess. 

my main activity after school is hanging out in el jardin, that's where i've met all of my current friends.  it's a giant square with the parroquia on one side and stores and cafes on the other 3 sides and benches, trees, etc in the middle.  about the size of a small city block.  everyone goes there at about 9pm to sit and watch.  there's tons of people all day but it really gets going at nite.  each corner has a shoe shine man and his regular customers, lots of street food, beggars, gypsies selling dolls and woven hats and lots of beautiful things that i have no desire to buy, toddlers, old people, wandering mariachis looking for work, anyone you could imagine.  last nite i met jose, an old man who was born and raised in san miguel.  he's been to new york, mexico city, all over the world, and he can't imagine living anywhere else than his home town.  he has a thing for tall women so he was happy to sit and tell me about his city.  and we have a date tomorrow, he's going to teach me how to dance to the mariachi bands.  

one thing i've noticed is that this place is expert in fiestas.  they get a lot of practice, there is some sort of party every nite, always fireworks, parroquia bells ringing, total loud craziness.  corpus christi was thursday nite and every block has an altar so people were parading around the streets with flowers and candles and the eucharist and pictures of their saints and, of course, fireworks (enrique, one of my teachers, says 'what do you call fireworks?' 'poor people staying poor'.  they spend so much money on them!  fireworks every nite for any reason!).  

but for corpus christi the town splurged on a light show for the parroquia (i'll attach a pic and try to video the show tonite, you should probably know what the parroquia looks like to understand how insane the light show is for this place).  at precisely 9:15 all the lights in el jardin went out and booming opera/classical/mexican music came from everywhere.  and there was a choreographed show on the front of the parroquia that lasted for about 15 minutes.  the place was nuts, i don't think i can explain it very well.  tonite's the last nite, i'm meeting the girls from my class there so i'll video it for you.

i also met my new drinking buddies in el jardin, benito and luis.  they took me to mama mia's, sort of a mexican version of tomcats, but playing 80's music.  lots of obnoxious drunk americans in town for a wedding party, didn't feel the need to talk to them.  so we had some beers and they taught me all the bad words that i should know in spanish.

i think i'll spend another couple weeks here.  my spanish is getting pretty good but i can only speak in the present tense.  hopefully we'll get to the past and future soon and that's all i need.  i'll take some day trips and check out the nearby sites, maybe a weekend in mexico city, but i'm so ready for the beach.

the parroquia

livin la vida aburrida

so far i think you can call my life in mexico somewhat boring.  i go to school for a few hours, i walk a few blocks to get lunch, i stop in the grocery store for a couple supplies, do some homework, walk a few blocks for dinner, wander around, go home.  i would probably shoot myself if that was my life every day in the states.

but it's so exciting here!  stepping off the curb is an adventure!  everything's in spanish!  how cool!  a can of tuna is so much more awesome when i can't read some of the words.

the notable accomplishment for today (so far!) is that tracy walked me to the grocery store (bonanza), and i permanently etched the location into my brain.  from my front door, cross to relox, walk 3 blocks, left on messones, it's on the left.  i will now eat regularly.

i'm better at reading price tags, converting pesos to dollars, and understanding the amount that the cashier tells me.  it really shocked me when i learned that the exchange rate is about 14 pesos to a dollar.  i thought it was around 8 or 10, so i wasn't too impressed with how cheap everything is.  but 14 changes everything.  the beer that i thought was $4 is actually only $2.60 (downside being that i'm inclined to drink more now).  the super fantastic gordita i had for lunch was less than a dollar.  i can't wait to go to the mall saturday!  "never pay the taxi driver more than 30 pesos to go anywhere"  $2??!!  why am i walking anywhere??

since my translated life is pretty boring i'm gonna have a mexican night out tonite.  i met some friends (benito, luis and billy) and we're meeting at 10pm in el jardin, and they are going to show me their favorite bars (for karaoke and salsa dancing...together?  i hope not).  i think they're pretty safe guys to hang with.  last nite i ran into benito in el jardin, about 9pm, i was going home.  i speak to him in spanish, he uses english, and we practice on each other.  he had his motorcycle and asked if i had seen the san miguel skyline from the hills at nite, i hadn't, so i hopped on and off we went.  i thought we were just going to go up a few streets and check it out... but 15 minutes later we're far down the highway and i'm wondering if our destination got lost in translation.  maybe he said he's going to sell me to una casa de putas?  he talks so fast i probably wouldn't have caught that.
but in the end, he took me to an overlook where i could see the entire city, it was beautiful.  and since he took me where he said he would, then dropped me off at my doorstep, i think i'll make it through tonite just fine.

and now, i'm going to nap.  it's gonna be a long nite.

cheap tequila.  my kinda place.

transient landmarks part 2...

yet another discovery today.  i don't mind being lost if i have an ice cream cone.

transient landmarks

here's an interesting fact about san miguel: there are no permanent signs for stores or cafes.  a shop opens, they put out a small sign, they close, the sign goes away.  different stores are open at different times of the day, some take siestas, some are open on weekends, the few streets i walk never look the same.  for those of you who understand my geographical handicap you can imagine what this does to me.

i went for a walk on sunday after i arrived and there wasn't much going on, i managed to find a crappy small grocery store (about a tenth the size of a 7-11).  the next day i'm walking with my 'eccentric' new friend and we find a fantastic grocery store with everything i need.  i go back later and can't find it (it didn't occur to me that it would be closed and all traces of its existence swept away).  so i walk and walk and get lost (and if you remember from my first day, 'all roads lead back...', well, that's bullshit.  roads lead to more roads which lead to the other side of town).

so now i understand that i need to find more concrete landmarks so i set out after class with tracy and she takes me to an even more fantastic grocery store.  after she leaves me i try to retrace my steps while its still open and i discover my second locational handicap.  i spend so much time watching my feet so i don't fall down a curb or stumble on the cobblestones or fall in a hole (or trample a beggar) that i completely forget to look at the street signs.  i have no idea where we just were.

so the good news is that every day is a new adventure in which i don't need to go more than a few blocks each way.  the bad news is that i'm doubting my ability to make it out of this town, much less into another country.  i'm going on a walking tour of the city in an hour, and this weekend tracy and i are going to learn how to ride the buses.  babysteps, i guess.

i carry a picture of my front door in case i need to show it to a taxi driver

holy crap i live in mexico

lots of interesting things happened today, and it's only 4pm, i haven't even started drinking.  the first day of spanish class was awesome, there are 3 of us.  tracy is a personal trainer from texas with 2 kids, and kate is an actress/singer/chant leader/sound healer/i could go on forever who moved here 2 months ago.  tracy has been coming here a few times a year for several years and is going to show me her running routes, as i can't imagine walking out my front door to run, i'd get smooshed by a bus or break my ankle on the cobblestones.  and i always thought that texans all knew spanish.  wrong.
socorro is our grammar teacher, enrique is our conversation leader, lots of good things learned today.  every time we try to say more than we know enrique stops us and says 'you talk pretty one day', meaning, stick with the few words you know.  patience.  k.
after class i took a walk with kate (and her dog, alma, who came to class too).  we went to an organic cafe for lunch, i ordered vegetarian tamales (con cebellos!) and they were fantastic.  this is where kate spent time telling me about her many talents as a singer, artist, actress, healer, etc, and she fit very nicely into that general category of 'eccentric'.  older woman loaded with turquoise jewelry wandering around with a dog, oblivious to the fact that dogs aren't welcome everywhere.  that was quite noticeable when we walked up through the artists alleys and into the open markets.  she would be on one side of the alley and her dog on the other, basically clotheslining everyone trying to walk by, and being the only white people around it was kinda embarrassing.  doubt she noticed.  she did notice, however, the woman waving the pointy end of a knife at her dog, she got quite upset but it was pretty funny.  this mexican woman is sitting in a hot hot room making food to sell and someone's dog sticks its nose in?  i think waving the knife is a good warning.  no language barrier.
yesterday i didn't find a single english speaking person while i was wandering.  today i found myself in an entire room of non spanish speakers.  it wasn't at all how i imagined it would be, like the ex-pats of hemingway.  i could drink with those people.  but not even close.  these were all dressed for the country club but too old to play tennis anymore.  i was by far the youngest gringo.  but that's what i get for wandering around with a new age tour guide.
and finally, the sad things for today.  hulu doesn't work here.  i won't ever get to see who passed their boards in grey's anatomy.  and google has figured out that i'm in mexico, and will only do my searches in spanish.  and translation doesn't matter because it will only give me spanish websites.  i was desperately trying to find online tv to watch last nite to help me sleep and eventually found a website with every episode of the simpsons in spanish.  maybe that's why i did so well in class today, subliminal learning.  aye caramba.

ps.  please stop texting me.  everyone.  that's gonna kill my travel budget.  email is good.  call me and leave a voicemail.  also good.  skype is m3lissab33.

a small section of the artists' markets

hola amigos

mexico!  i wasn't really sure i'd make it but here i am!  got a bit worried when i couldn't even find my flight out of lihue, which should be the easiest airport in the world.  but honolulu and houston later, i'm an expert.

i flew into leon, first sight is armed men lounging on the runway, always makes me feel safe.   customs was no problem, except they aren't fond of purple ink and made me go to the back of the line to fill out all of my forms again.  found my bag and the cute little man holding the sign with my name on it.  easy.  

san miguel de allende is about an hour and a half from the leon airport, and it was a crazy trip.  the car was new and clean, my man was dressed how you'd imagine a hired car driver dressed, and we flew across country.  one lane highway (just like home except skinnier) and apparently optional traffic rules...it was great.  the only time we slowed down was for cows in the road.

the school is in the heart of san miguel, on the main street (thank god).  all roads lead back, which is exactly what i need.  even so, every time i leave my school teacher says bueno suerte, it's like she knows me already.  managed to find an atm, a cafe for lunch, and a crappy market.  

lunch was great, all the spanish from mariachis came in handy.  una cerveza, por favor.  enchiladas con pollo, por favor.  uno mas cerveza, por favor.  already a local.

so yeah, pretty boring stuff but it doesn't seem boring in spanish.  finding useable currency and feeding myself...i'm quite proud of today's accomplishments.

not gonna starve here

high tech stuff going on

I'm testing a blog from my phone to see if it works.
I've also set up google voice if anyone wants to call me, your message will go to my email.
there is also a link to call me from the blog as well, so no reason we all can't stay in touch!

on a sad note, my truck just drove away without me. enjoy my baby, pemberton family!