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