Well I'm a big bundle of no fun. . .

Well, here it is, the end of the week and I haven't updated at all.  One might think that was because I was having so much fun running around and being busy and having fun and being busy having fun.  Well, that's part of it.  I do find myself busy, and some of the time it's with fun.  Other times I'm just watching Modern Family on Sidereel and that's not really update worthy.
Class is absolutely kicking my ass, to the point where I do that thing I am SO fond of - fighting back tears when I get frustrated with myself.  One of my teachers told me today that I understand a lot, and I learn very quickly, but I'm on my own in class because I don't speak.  I can't argue with that.  I do the book stuff quite well- the exercises, the reading aloud (she said my accent is much better than the other two ladies - Laura from Vermont, and Dina from San Jose), but when it comes time to chat, I am all "si" and "no."  I get so frustrated when I try to think of what I want to say and can't, especially if it's a vocabulary word we JUST talked about, or a verb I know I can conjugate but I'm drawing a blank and confusing past tense with future tense.  And these very sweet women look at me expectantly and really want me to try and the wanting to get it right spirals out of control and I absolutely freak out.  It's like, if I think I won't look like I know exactly what I'm doing, if I can't be a master of something; then I don't want to do it all.  I feel like I should KNOW this stuff.  I shouldn't struggle as much as I am.  It is utterly exhausting.
But also, incredibly fun.  I think I am more confident now than I was when I got here, and I know I just need to spend a bit more time studying some of this stuff on my own until it clicks into place.
So there you go; still bummed I haven't updated?

I had a couple of fun nights out playing pool with the American crew from UNO, and they were swell fun.  Tonight I'm going out to dinner with Dina, the girl from San Jose that is in the class opposite mine.  (We have two teachers - Elvira and Felipa; I have Elvira for the first two hours and Laura and Dina have Felipa, and then we swap).  So yeah, I'm getting 1:1 Spanish instruction for the price of group instruction, which is you know, FREAKING AWESOME.

pieces of art I'd totally like to buy (you can't see the Frida one; she was too much in shadow)

I've settled in to a pattern here - I get up, go to school until 1 and then grab lunch.  I might stop at a store (expect Mexican Christmas or birthday gifts if you have one upcoming) and shop a bit or look at the pieces of art I'd like to buy but totally won't, and consider buying the pieces I'd like to buy and totally might.  Then, as I digest, I read James' book, Wotz; either on my bed if it's pouring, or up on the terraza if it's nice (so you know, yesterday).  Then I do my P90X workout which absolutely kicks my ass; take a shower and then. . . .
I might go out to dinner, or if I have someone to hang out with (aforementioned Americans and Dina), I'll meet up with them; or else I'll cook at home and watch Modern Family or read some more or practice my verbs on spaleon.com.  Helpful, but not like speaking.
I think what I'll do is come up with some random story that I'd want to tell in English; then translate it and read it aloud to myself.  I was telling Quinn yesterday that if I need something at the market, I think of what I might need to say the entire time I'm walking over.  See, when I have time to prepare and think with no pressure, I don't panic.  Plus, I have no idea if it's correct or just close enough that they know what I mean, so there's less chance of me being corrected, which always feels like a win.

The weather here has been much much better - after the INSANE rain storm on Monday I think it was, the afternoon showers were much shorter and lighter, and yesterday and today have been sunny the entire time (so far).  It's muggy out there though, and walking up hill home after class leaves me gasping for breath and sweating like a pig.  Sexy, yes?  Then at night it cools off quite a bit, so it's not even like you get those "balmy" evenings, but let's be honest - it's a hell of a lot warmer than San Francisco is right now.

Dad comes down on the 12th for a few days (yay!), and then Patrick will come down for my final week (yay some more!).  Andrea and Duane are still mulling it over.  There is tons left to do: lots more city to explore, shops to poke my head into, vista points to check out, grottoes to visit, neighboring towns to travel to, two for one drink specials to be exploited and goat cheese to be eaten.  Stay tuned for more riveting updates!

Oh, and I've become quite enamored with the door knockers here (random, right?) and I've started snapping photos of them.  Check 'em out on flickr.

Day two. . . part two. . . .

I've started uploading my photos for your viewing pleasure, and because I always have your best interests in mind, I'm not embedding them all into the blog since it would take ages for the pages to load.  Instead, check out my flickr photostream down there on the left.  The photo above is a house in my neighborhood to give you an idea of what it looks like.  I should've taken a photo of MY house, but didn't think of it until later, then I forgot, and now it's dark.  Manana, te lo prometo.

My stroll around town was fairly uneventful.  I hardly got rained on at all, which was nice since I didn't see any umbrellas actually. . . I walked and walked and walked looking for this one particular pharmacy that we drove past yesterday, only to realize it's only a few blocks from the house and had cut across to that street a block too late and missed it.  Oh well; I got some good exercise!  I'll give them cobblestone sidewalks (which are super narrow by the way, maybe 2 feet wide - I completely bashed myself on a window sill earlier), but the streets are insane.  Walking on them in flats with very little padding is not recommended.

The markets here are so odd to me, but that's one of my favorite parts of visiting other countries.  I loved in Europe how different shops specialized in different things - one for bread, another for meat, another for produce.  It's kind of like that here, except one is a shoe store/hair salon; another might only sell one or two things and just lots of them (diapers, baby formula, hand lotion and hair dye); another looks like someone's living room with people sitting around on couches watching tv, but then there is a big rotisserie full of chickens in the middle of the room; and tons and tons of huge home decor shops, crammed to overflowing with all sorts of awesome things I want to take home with me.  I kind of can't figure out how you would ever know where to go for anything.  It also seems like some of the shops might close mid-day, all siesta like.  I walked past several that I wanted to go into, but they were locked up, even though their hours said they'd be open.

The town square, El Jardin, is actually quite small; only a block with La Parroquia at one end.  I'm meeting Allan there tomorrow to drop off my rent check.  There were all sorts of people just hanging out; I can't tell if they're local, or tourists, or what, but isn't it a work day?  There was a little table for their version of the SPCA with a couple of dogs and a cage full of snuggling kittens, and a few other folks with leaflets and fliers, and of course vendors - men trying to sell woven bags, women in more traditional Indian style dresses selling little dolls, the carts with their churros and bags of fruit with wasps happily munching away on your purchase before you get around to it, which ew.  I also think ew about the women that are making chalupas or something on the street with their little hot frying pan bowl things, and their bag of meat just sitting out, waiting to go in your belly.  Of course I'm totally going to try one at some point.  I mean, I had ice in my Coca Cola Light today - so why not, right?  Speaking of which; I ate at Cafe San Francisco (oh, the irony) and had their enchiladas especiales - chicken with potatoes, carrots, queso and crema. 

There are plenty of young people in town, all Mexican though, so that makes me feel better.  Hopefully I can make some friends that want to practice their English as much as I'd like to practice my Spanish and I won't be kicking it with my elders the whole time I'm here.  It seems like there a lot of sort of almost hipstery, cool kids that ride around town on ATVs (which you can also rent by the way).  I think I'll have to follow Alan's suggestion of getting out into some nightlife instead of hiding here in the house, which I have opted to do again tonight so I can cook.  I figure Friday night is a better night to check out the bars and stuff anyway.  I hear there are a few "discotheques" as (Alan called them - discotecas, I'm sure) in town, that some of the wealthier kids from neighboring towns come to.  Why this is important I'm not sure, but he seemed to think I should go.  I saw lots of cool looking restaurants too, with nice bars, so I'm thinking I'll start there.  I just don't know if it's socially acceptable to be a girl/woman out alone, sitting at a bar, trying to start up conversations.

The weather hasn't been quite what I expected.  I thought it would be warmer during the day, but it's really only warm warm for a few hours.  The mornings are cool, things heat up a bit, the rain starts to spit at you around 3, it gets a bit muggy, it rains for sure closer to 4 or 5, and then it's cooler.  It's lovely out, don't get me wrong; in the low-mid 70s; I just expected a bit more heat and a bit less cloud cover.  Warmer than San Francisco, but don't come down with a closet full of sundresses, like someone else may have, is what I'm saying.

I'm pretty excited about the cooking school I found today; there is a class tomorrow and it's 600 pesos (about $47).  It's 11-1 and includes the food, obvi.  I'm guessing Concepcion would teach me for free - maybe next Thursday I can ask her; we did talk a bit about cooking today and I think she'd be game.  She is really super super nice, and I feel lucky to have such good people here to help me get settled.  This cooking school looks like the Mexican Sur La Table - created for the benefit of the American tourists that are staying in the neighboring hotels (I have three spas within spitting distance from my pad, and I actually saw valets or something hovering in the doorway of another hotel), and well, that sounds like me, so I guess I'll fit right in.  It's called Sazon, el arte de la mesa (the art of the table), and I bet that can pretty much paint a picture in your mind about what it looks like.  There are dishes there that you know I'm dying over; good thing I saw a FedEx store so I can shop away and ship things home; Patrick can attest to the fact that my luggage is already quite full.

I'm only swooning over a few other items; the star lights, which I always always always covet, every time I come to Mexico, and what do you know, they have them here in mercury glass (which I also have a thing for), and I think they're less than $20, so yay!  I am also drooling over (get ready for it) a Dia de los Muertos type statue of Frida Kahlo with parrots and monkeys, and yes, fine, roll your eyes.  I just always love those macabre little guys, and the one of Frida (or of the flamenco dancers -they'll also do) just caught my attention.  I'm not sure how much they are, but they all say "No tocas por favor" which makes me think they're caro.  I'll get bold and ask about the Frida one tomorrow; I was just all shopped out today by the time I saw her in the window.

 

this is not a photo of the ones I'm drooling over, just something I found online for reference in case you don't know what I'm talking about