Weekend Highlights

Friday July 2nd, 2010

• This morning I walked to school by myself! I navigated the streets flawlessly and enjoyed 1 pint of water in the courtyard before class
• After class I joined a new classmate Jay and two of his girlfriends to the hot springs outside of town! I had a coco con fresca popsicle in the taxi ride home.
  
• My new friends and I met my mom at Fabrica la Aurora for an art show - it was quite the scene of bourgeoise SMA nightlife.

Saturday July 3rd, 2010

• My mom and I explored the shops around town, and an art fair at Insituto Allende during the day
  
• Later in the evening, we went to a very nice restaurant that was advertising a blues festival, but the roof top music scene was lackluster and the music was being pumped in restaurant garden downstairs, so we shared a great dinner of tapas and a bottle of rioja. Followed by flan and cappuccino in El Jardín
• We ended the night with very nice tequila, indio dark beer at El Caparal Bar where my mom was eagerly awaiting Benajamín Lara her favorite Ranchera musican.
  
• El Caparal Bar was a like being inside a Mexican Art Shadow Box

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• When we arrived at 9:30 for the live music it was a local drunk on stage, and local drunk stage right, and hidden in the shadows was a woman veiled by her chain of cigarette smoke.
• We were seated stage center just in front of the singer and sat for an hour sipping our tequila and beer while listening to the sporadic singing and continuous dialog between the drunk singer and drunken spectator. The next hour got really lively! Approximately 10 Spanish speaking generation Xers walked in, clearly not Mexican but clearly in with the culture -we watched as they played musical chairs with the microphone and with each other's respected partners.
  

Sunday July 4th, 2010

• Sunday morning my mom woke up feeling very ill - no she didn't drink herself under the table - we both went home quiet respectably almost sober.
• So after holding my own at the breakfast table in Spanish solo (usually Chela and my mom talk in a harmonious flow and pause for 5 minutes for me to practice some basic present tense verbs in some context for what I am doing at the table - sometimes they are nice enough to let me talk about what I have already done or plan to do using present tense verbs - they sure are great that way!).
• I went to the pharmacy alone for Pedialyte and Gatorade with the conjugation of "tener" well under my belt. I missed the closest pharmacia and waited for about 10 minutes shouting "Hola" at irregular intervals before the pharmacist walked up to the counter. It was your typical garage turned storefront pharmacia. I paid the man while engaging in fluid scripted spanish, and as I was placing the bottles in my bag he ran out the door and into a waiting car in the street, he waved, and drove off. I suspect he hadn't heard me shouting for assistance and I caught him leaving when he came to assist me - I wonder who was manning the shop.
• After putting my mom back to bed, I went to El Jardin and read.
  
• I saw the 11am mass crowd arrive at the Parroquia, and attended the mass.
• At the local English bookstore I ran into friend and we went back to the art fair, I was talking in Spanish to a Oaxacan rug merchant when I realized after several times of saying "¿Que es?" - what's this - and getting more elaborate stories of the State of Oaxaca, the history of textiles, and the type of sheep the wool came from - with minimal understanding but a few words hear and there - I realized I was wanting to say "¿Cuanto es?" - how much
  
• Had a giant lunch including cream of bean soup, triangle shaped tamales in chicken broth with stewed pork, and one of the BEST PINA COLADAS of my life, I went home and read for at least 6 hours before having night cap and calling it a night.