Sat. happenings

Weekends have always been the weirdest times for me here. The time seems to stretch out with no real plans, but the expectation that I should be doing stuff. I’m trying to ease into being here for a long time, which means that I could without guilt get up slowly, make myself some tea and sit in the chair in my study reading with the window open. L invited me to go with her for b’fast to a new coffee shop that’s owned by a newly married couple (she’s Mexican and he’s American) that is nice and funky and has really good food, like blackberry waffles. Super friendly people who have made a very comfortable easy space, and easy going so that when I (in some moment of a brain blip) started to walk out without paying, they laughed and teased me about being a queen. L and I then went to the Pachote Market (where there are organic vendors Fri and Sat) and it was so wonderful to buy fresh vegetables (including arugula!), and I bought some in-expensive pottery bowls and mugs so that I don’t have to only use the plastic ones left in my apt (I know I know, I love nesting and having a place with nice things). And then we wandered to the more traditional market close by to get fruit, I love guayabas and yellow mangos. Part of the market also has meat stands and I don’t care how authentic it may be, I’m buying any meat I cook from a supermarket… even if it’s the same stuff just repackaged, the ultimate lie to me! L told me that I just need to soak things without peels in a mixture of water and this water purifier and things with peels just need to be washed with soap and water and then dried. I love being able to eat fresh veggies and fruits (I eat much more of the later here than in the states) so I hope that I do it in such a way not to get as sick as I was last winter in Chiapas.

And then the day stretched before me and I really fought the impulse to fill my day, to make sure that I had plans. Instead, I heard L and our other neighbor J talking in the courtyard and when I poked my head out my bathroom window they invited me to join them and a friend, Lucy. It was really nice, Lucy, had come over in part for help on her English homework so we were trying to teach her some phrases and pronunciation. She was having such trouble with even simple words like “of” and “want” which was really interesting because it illuminates a) the ways that language imprints itself on our bodies so as to make new sounds incredible difficult to both the ear and tongue (obvious yes, but interesting to see it in practice) and that my assumptions about the presence of English (and it really is everywhere and many people know some) does not make it any less foreign here and b) my difficulties with Spanish are not in the same ballpark. It was really helpful to listen to L, J and Lucy talk because they are both fluent and it is just so helpful to be in the sort of language saturated spaces… and I could follow the conversation and chat some. What was most helpful to me was translating our side conversations in English into Spanish for Lucy. One of the ways she was trying to learn English was through music, and specifically “Imagine,” so there were the four of us trying to remember John Lennon’s tune and lyrics, belting it out in giggles. Lucy in particular found it hilarious that I had a crush on Lennon when I was 8 and didn’t know that he was dead already. It was just a very pleasant way to spend most of the afternoon and we all ended up having a light dinner together. I’m really glad that I’m living in a place that has open people who are interested in forming some sort of community. Tomorrow we are all going to celebrate J’s birthday with a mix of American and Oaxaqueno friends.

But, tonight L and I went to the cinepolis to see 10,000 B.C., which I sort of have to recommend for the absolute cheese factor! It was incredible, we started out somewhere in the alps or Himalayas with hunters and gatherers (with Mastadons!), made our way through a jungle immediately below them with giant dinosaur birds, followed by a sort of savanna landscape with random African tribes (and saber tooth tigers!), ending up in Egypt!!!! It was awesome, a total Moses beta version! It’s actually really nice to know that I can catch American movies (hopefully not dubbed) while I’m here (they now have Juno, Horton Hears a Who, and Jumper).

I talking with L about teaching students ethnography and when you begin to embody a cultural place. Our examples were how long it takes us to remember to walk on the shady side of the street (not long in this heat), and remembering to put toilet paper in the trash and not the toilet (and then vice versa in the States). But I had a total moment when we were fruit shopping, I was asking a woman what these little fruits that looked like Rainer cherries were and then didn’t understand her answer, so she handed me one to try and I bit into it without thinking and then offered it to L. She bit a little from the middle and when we walked away she was like “um, don’t do that again.” How could I have forgotten that I can’t just bite into fruits and veggies, especially not in the market?!?!