Today was full of sight-seeing and walking - certainly more than I'm used to! After a lovely breakfast of "gorditas" (thick home-made tortillas with refried black beans, onions, and crumbly cheese) we took a bus downtown to the Zócalo, which is the main plaza with the cathedral on one side. We walked around inside the Cathedral - very decorative - and a local marketplace, then went to an old convent called Santo Domingo that has been converted into a museum. It's actually the main museum for the state of Oaxaca which, by the way, is south of Mexico City. It was weird seeing a Spanish Suit-of-Armor and realizing that a Con
quistador had actually worn that here in this land to fight against the poor unarmed, unprotected campesinos to be able to steal their gold, their religions, and their women.
al and developing vocabulary list, a pen, a map of Mexico, a Spanish-English dictionary, and my favorites: Japanese-style peanuts and "elote cacahuacintle" - hot corn-on-the-cob spread with room-temperature mayonnaise, then coated with that crumbly cheese (I really will need to find out what it's called) and I opted NOT to include the proffered chili powder- It's such a fantastic snack, served on a wooden stick, that I could eat one every day!
I met an elderly American gentleman here today while he was coming out of a school where he takes Spanish classes. He and his wife finally moved here permanently from New York, after spending several winters here. I told him that my dream was to move to Mexico also and he asked why I didn't do it - they love it here! Then I remembered that I have 3 male reasons and a lot of financial reasons - including a job - that keep me from moving here. But at least I get to enjoy my occasional visits south of the border!
We arrived back at the apartment about 9 P.M. and I was anxious to see what Cecilia would whip up for dinner. According to the Mexican schedule, they eat a light supper at 9 -10 P.M. To my silent surprise, she didn't fix anything because she and Juan were still full from the buffet! Good thing I still had a food bar with me from my travels yesterday! And that "elote cacahuacintle" snack earlier was a big help! Food can pretty much be found on every street corner and in every park. In fact an old indigenous lady selling gum and snacks approached us while we were resting in the park earlier today. She didn't really have change so we couldn't buy anything, but she taught me 2 words in Zapoteco, a native Indian language that is till spoken in this region: "dita" means tortilla, "duchi" means bean.
We bought a weird, spiky, hairy fruit out of a wheelbarrow this evening from a boy who didn't want his photo taken. The fruit was called "rambután" and my Mexican friends had never seen it before either. It has a reddish-brown spiky exterior about the size of a ping-pong ball, and the flesh is firm, transparent white and juicy with a pit the size of an almond. But it was rather expensive - we only got six for 10 pesos ($1).
Thankfully, the weather has been overcast with a slight breeze and not muggy - I was afraid it might be unpleasant, but it's been ideal! The house windows here aren't made to accommodate screens (I've complained about this for 35 years, but the Mexican government doesn't seem to care about my lack of comfort, I guess), so it's a drag to have mosquitos and bugs enter the homes just to keep some fresh air coming in! If I were to live here (in my dreams, right?!?), I'd definitely have to resolve the window-screen situation!
We're watching the Olympics from Beijing, China on TV here. It's fun to listen to the games described in detail in Spanish and actually understand the narration! Before, when I've watched sports in Spanish, it's been soccer and the commentators get so excited and yell so rapidly that I don't understand it as well, nor do I enjoy it as much.
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